All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday requested Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to follow Kerala's example in putting a stay on the National Population Register (NPR) in the state. Owaisi alleged that the NPR has no relation with the census or social welfare schemes and that it was "purely an exercise to implement NRC" in the future.
"I request Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao to put a stay on the National Population Register enumeration as Kerala did. NPR has no relation with the census and social welfare schemes. It is purely an exercise to implement NRC in the future," news agency ANI quoted Owaisi on Monday.
The NPR is a register of the usual residents of the country. It is being prepared with information collected at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-district, district, state and national level under provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
The AIMIM chief has been vocal about the citizenship issue from the get-go and targeted the Narendra Modi-led NDA government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on several occasions, over the implementation of the amended citizenship act.
Yesterday, an official notification from the Telangana Chief Minister's Office (CMO) informed that the state cabinet has asked the central government not to make 'religious discrimination' in granting Indian citizenship. In light of this, the state cabinet will be taking up the matter in the Telangana Assembly "along the lines of Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, and West Bengal", a post from the official Twitter handle of the Telangana CMO informed.
The state governments in Rajasthan, Kerala, and Punjab have already passed a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state assembly, urging the central government to take back the contentious act.
Severe protests have erupted in various parts of the country ever since the central government passed the contentious act, which grants Indian citizenship to refugees belonging to the Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, and Jain communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
Several civil society members and activists have stated that the act discriminates against Muslims, a claim which has been refuted by the Centre, which puts that the act will grant long-deserved citizenship to refugees who have faced religious persecution in these neighbouring countries.
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