Resist NPR!: I. 'NPR, NRC: 2 Sides of the Same Coin': II. No NRC, let alone CAA, in NPR 2010: III. Backtracking or a Deceptive Move!???
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Sukla Sen
Dec 28, 2019, 3:45:35 AM12/28/19
to foil-l, Say NO 2 UID Core Group
[The write-up, at sl. no I. below, brilliantly analyses how the NRC, via the NPR, is luring the average Indians to a dark Kafkaesque world, without any visible escape.
Also, how the NPR, now, is meant to be way different from the NPR 2010.
<<Thus, what these provisions essentially do is threaten to unleash a reign of fear, insecurity, and harassment, where everything comes down to the decision of the local Registrar. There must, therefore, be an urgent demand to repeal the Citizenship Rules of 2003 and Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, which provide the legal foundation for all of this to happen.
Now, the BJP also claims that the NPR is no different from Census, and that its sole purpose is for welfare schemes. Both claims are false. As advocate Malavika Prasad points out, if the NPR was only about enumeration, there was no reason for it to fall within the gambit of Citizenship Rules – which, as the name suggests, are about determining citizenship. And as for welfare, for the last seven years, the government has maintained that Aadhaar is – and will be – the panacea for all government welfare schemes. Their lawyers have argued it in the Supreme Court, and their spin-doctors in newspaper columns. So, is the government now admitting that Aadhaar was a junk document all along?
Apart from all of this, there is one final damning piece of information. For the first time, this NPR (as opposed to the previous one in 2010) will ask for parents’ date and place of birth. Why is this important? Because under the Citizenship Act, those born in India after 1987 are citizens only if ’at least’ one parent is a citizen. The NPR, therefore, asks a question that has no conceivable bearing with enumeration – but every conceivable link with citizenship [emphasis added].>>
(Excerpted from sl. no. I. below.)
<<... Maken alleged Modi government was going to conduct the NRC exercise in the garb of NPR. He pointed to the NPR pre-test form that seeks the place of birth of parents born outside India and also Aadhaar, mobile phone and driving licence record of a resident [emphasis added].
He said the NPR-2010 did not seek such details which clearly show a “sinister” plot behind the exercise [emphasis added]. Maken said the move to ask for Aadhaar details was also violative of a Supreme Court judgment on privacy.
Also, how the NPR, now, is meant to be way different from the NPR 2010.
<<Thus, what these provisions essentially do is threaten to unleash a reign of fear, insecurity, and harassment, where everything comes down to the decision of the local Registrar. There must, therefore, be an urgent demand to repeal the Citizenship Rules of 2003 and Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, which provide the legal foundation for all of this to happen.
Now, the BJP also claims that the NPR is no different from Census, and that its sole purpose is for welfare schemes. Both claims are false. As advocate Malavika Prasad points out, if the NPR was only about enumeration, there was no reason for it to fall within the gambit of Citizenship Rules – which, as the name suggests, are about determining citizenship. And as for welfare, for the last seven years, the government has maintained that Aadhaar is – and will be – the panacea for all government welfare schemes. Their lawyers have argued it in the Supreme Court, and their spin-doctors in newspaper columns. So, is the government now admitting that Aadhaar was a junk document all along?
Apart from all of this, there is one final damning piece of information. For the first time, this NPR (as opposed to the previous one in 2010) will ask for parents’ date and place of birth. Why is this important? Because under the Citizenship Act, those born in India after 1987 are citizens only if ’at least’ one parent is a citizen. The NPR, therefore, asks a question that has no conceivable bearing with enumeration – but every conceivable link with citizenship [emphasis added].>>
(Excerpted from sl. no. I. below.)
<<... Maken alleged Modi government was going to conduct the NRC exercise in the garb of NPR. He pointed to the NPR pre-test form that seeks the place of birth of parents born outside India and also Aadhaar, mobile phone and driving licence record of a resident [emphasis added].
He said the NPR-2010 did not seek such details which clearly show a “sinister” plot behind the exercise [emphasis added]. Maken said the move to ask for Aadhaar details was also violative of a Supreme Court judgment on privacy.
...
No democratic country in the world puts its people through such a harrowing, painful – and utterly needless – exercise [emphasis added].>>(Excerpted from sl. no. II. below.)
<<But the page that lists the Acts, Rules and Gazette Notifications does not have the July 31, 2019 gazette in the list!
Curiously, the gazette (notifying the NPR 2010) also appears to be missing from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) website. While there was an October 10, 2019 press release titled All India Conference of State Coordinators, Directors of Census Operations for Census of India 2021 and updation of National Population Register in the country, the gazette notification could not be found anywhere in the sections titled Notices, Circulars, or Announcements on the MHA website.>>
(Excerpted from sl. no. III. below.)
This raises the very vital issue whether it's a case of silent backtracking or a cunning move to deceive!?
The resistance, in any case, must continue, unabated, till scrapping of the NPR-NRC-CAA.]
I/III
https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/news/india/npr-nrc-2-sides-of-the-same-coin/amp_articleshow/72985517.cms?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR15OZnM7E7HtTX7yadTXPwiWfRmDLYz7i1sBp2H3bLqQtyXy4JQD1kpX18
NPR, NRC: 2 SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
Mumbai Mirror | Dec 27, 2019
Gautam Bhatia
On December 24, the Union Cabinet cleared a Rs 3,900 crore budget for the National Population Register (NPR) – an exercise due to begin in April. Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar immediately hit the airwaves to insist that it was merely an enumeration exercise that had nothing to do with the controversial and feared National Register of Citizens (NRC). Echoing Prime Minister Modi’s claim at a rally the day before that the Centre was yet to even discuss a nationwide NRC, these ministers argued that the NPR was as innocuous as the Census, did not require any documents and was being undertaken for the simple purpose of ensuring better delivery of government schemes.
These claims, however, fall apart at even the slightest scrutiny. The Indian Express pointed out, the link between the NPR and the NRC was made by BJP leaders themselves no fewer than nine times in the Parliament. More importantly, the connection between the two is hardwired into law. In 2003, the Vajpayee government amended the Citizenship Act and introduced Section 14A laying the legal foundations for a nationwide NRC. This was followed by Citizenship Rules of 2003. And these clearly state that the NPR is the first step of NRC.
The clarity comes from one simple line hidden away in Rule 4(3) of the Citizenship Rules: “For the purposes of preparation and inclusion in the Local Register of Indian Citizens, the particulars collected of every family and individual in the Population Register shall be verified and scrutinised by the Local Registrar...” In other words, the law mandates that the information collected from individuals and families to create the NPR will be verified by government officials for NRC.
The intent of these rules is further clarified in Rule 4(4), which goes on to state that “particulars of such individuals whose Citizenship is doubtful, shall be entered by the Local Registrar with an appropriate remark in the Population Register for further enquiry.” It is here that the NPR and the NRC processes blur into each other: the Citizenship Rules essentially give local government officials the power to ascertain if a person is a ‘Doubtful Citizen’, based on information they glean during the NPR process. As was evident during the NRC process in Assam, lakhs of these ‘doubtful’ citizens were forced to ‘prove’ their citizenship to hard-nosed and often unsympathetic government officials.
The story does not end here. Even after one has jumped through this fire hoop and made it to the NRC, the amendment allow any person to ‘object’ to any name in the list – forcing them to go through the arduous process all over again. This could be a disgruntled neighbour, or even an office rival.
Once again, the Assam experience speaks for itself: an investigation by Scroll found that there were en masse ’objections’ against swathes of people – predominantly Muslims. And many times, the objectors did not even know whom they were ‘objecting’ to – but justified it as ‘collateral damage’.
Thus, what these provisions essentially do is threaten to unleash a reign of fear, insecurity, and harassment, where everything comes down to the decision of the local Registrar. There must, therefore, be an urgent demand to repeal the Citizenship Rules of 2003 and Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, which provide the legal foundation for all of this to happen.
Now, the BJP also claims that the NPR is no different from Census, and that its sole purpose is for welfare schemes. Both claims are false. As advocate Malavika Prasad points out, if the NPR was only about enumeration, there was no reason for it to fall within the gambit of Citizenship Rules – which, as the name suggests, are about determining citizenship. And as for welfare, for the last seven years, the government has maintained that Aadhaar is – and will be – the panacea for all government welfare schemes. Their lawyers have argued it in the Supreme Court, and their spin-doctors in newspaper columns. So, is the government now admitting that Aadhaar was a junk document all along?
Apart from all of this, there is one final damning piece of information. For the first time, this NPR (as opposed to the previous one in 2010) will ask for parents’ date and place of birth. Why is this important? Because under the Citizenship Act, those born in India after 1987 are citizens only if ’at least’ one parent is a citizen. The NPR, therefore, asks a question that has no conceivable bearing with enumeration – but every conceivable link with citizenship.
Therefore, please understand the chronology: An NPR will be conducted first. The information will be used as a base for a nationwide NRC. The NRC will force every individual to prove their citizenship to a government official, and even if they do, any person may object to it. And all of this is being done without any credible evidence of large-scale ‘illegal’ immigration into the country – in fact, evidence suggests the opposite.
No democratic country in the world puts its people through such a harrowing, painful – and utterly needless – exercise.
II/III.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/congress-didnt-tie-npr-to-nrc-bjp-move-sinister/articleshow/72987434.cms?fbclid=IwAR0D1IJo2w7jmItxQ9WIF1A--YFI_XtK-I2_F0kLuQ2f1H_QMrfVlCLl4E4
Congress: Didn’t tie NPR to NRC, BJP move sinister
TNN | Dec 27, 2019, 4:48 IST
Snipped
III,
https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/npr-2020-gazette-notification-missing-official-govt-websites-taken?fbclid=IwAR1IrLhGz8EQL6ZTBY3pUKr4n09d7uUJpKD3zlohimiUcy8_uGCe9h0y3Wg
NPR 2020 gazette notification missing from official gov’t websites, taken off?
The gazette notification dated July 31, 2019 had indicated that the National Population Register update was to begin in April 2020
Sabrangindia
21 Dec 2019
Image Courtesy: wikipedia.org
The official website of the Government of India about census related information, has one important notification missing… the one dealing with the commencement of the exercise to update the National Population Register (NPR).
This is curious given the recent offer by the government to rethink certain provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in wake of nationwide protests. The double-blows of CAA-NPR are seen by many as a threat to the secular and democratic fabric of the nation. Therefore, it is odd that an official gazette notification would not appear on an official government website, especially one dealing with the census.
The original gazette may be viewed here:
Snipped
-- <<But the page that lists the Acts, Rules and Gazette Notifications does not have the July 31, 2019 gazette in the list!
Curiously, the gazette (notifying the NPR 2010) also appears to be missing from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) website. While there was an October 10, 2019 press release titled All India Conference of State Coordinators, Directors of Census Operations for Census of India 2021 and updation of National Population Register in the country, the gazette notification could not be found anywhere in the sections titled Notices, Circulars, or Announcements on the MHA website.>>
(Excerpted from sl. no. III. below.)
This raises the very vital issue whether it's a case of silent backtracking or a cunning move to deceive!?
The resistance, in any case, must continue, unabated, till scrapping of the NPR-NRC-CAA.]
I/III
https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/news/india/npr-nrc-2-sides-of-the-same-coin/amp_articleshow/72985517.cms?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR15OZnM7E7HtTX7yadTXPwiWfRmDLYz7i1sBp2H3bLqQtyXy4JQD1kpX18
NPR, NRC: 2 SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
Mumbai Mirror | Dec 27, 2019
Gautam Bhatia
On December 24, the Union Cabinet cleared a Rs 3,900 crore budget for the National Population Register (NPR) – an exercise due to begin in April. Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar immediately hit the airwaves to insist that it was merely an enumeration exercise that had nothing to do with the controversial and feared National Register of Citizens (NRC). Echoing Prime Minister Modi’s claim at a rally the day before that the Centre was yet to even discuss a nationwide NRC, these ministers argued that the NPR was as innocuous as the Census, did not require any documents and was being undertaken for the simple purpose of ensuring better delivery of government schemes.
These claims, however, fall apart at even the slightest scrutiny. The Indian Express pointed out, the link between the NPR and the NRC was made by BJP leaders themselves no fewer than nine times in the Parliament. More importantly, the connection between the two is hardwired into law. In 2003, the Vajpayee government amended the Citizenship Act and introduced Section 14A laying the legal foundations for a nationwide NRC. This was followed by Citizenship Rules of 2003. And these clearly state that the NPR is the first step of NRC.
The clarity comes from one simple line hidden away in Rule 4(3) of the Citizenship Rules: “For the purposes of preparation and inclusion in the Local Register of Indian Citizens, the particulars collected of every family and individual in the Population Register shall be verified and scrutinised by the Local Registrar...” In other words, the law mandates that the information collected from individuals and families to create the NPR will be verified by government officials for NRC.
The intent of these rules is further clarified in Rule 4(4), which goes on to state that “particulars of such individuals whose Citizenship is doubtful, shall be entered by the Local Registrar with an appropriate remark in the Population Register for further enquiry.” It is here that the NPR and the NRC processes blur into each other: the Citizenship Rules essentially give local government officials the power to ascertain if a person is a ‘Doubtful Citizen’, based on information they glean during the NPR process. As was evident during the NRC process in Assam, lakhs of these ‘doubtful’ citizens were forced to ‘prove’ their citizenship to hard-nosed and often unsympathetic government officials.
The story does not end here. Even after one has jumped through this fire hoop and made it to the NRC, the amendment allow any person to ‘object’ to any name in the list – forcing them to go through the arduous process all over again. This could be a disgruntled neighbour, or even an office rival.
Once again, the Assam experience speaks for itself: an investigation by Scroll found that there were en masse ’objections’ against swathes of people – predominantly Muslims. And many times, the objectors did not even know whom they were ‘objecting’ to – but justified it as ‘collateral damage’.
Thus, what these provisions essentially do is threaten to unleash a reign of fear, insecurity, and harassment, where everything comes down to the decision of the local Registrar. There must, therefore, be an urgent demand to repeal the Citizenship Rules of 2003 and Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, which provide the legal foundation for all of this to happen.
Now, the BJP also claims that the NPR is no different from Census, and that its sole purpose is for welfare schemes. Both claims are false. As advocate Malavika Prasad points out, if the NPR was only about enumeration, there was no reason for it to fall within the gambit of Citizenship Rules – which, as the name suggests, are about determining citizenship. And as for welfare, for the last seven years, the government has maintained that Aadhaar is – and will be – the panacea for all government welfare schemes. Their lawyers have argued it in the Supreme Court, and their spin-doctors in newspaper columns. So, is the government now admitting that Aadhaar was a junk document all along?
Apart from all of this, there is one final damning piece of information. For the first time, this NPR (as opposed to the previous one in 2010) will ask for parents’ date and place of birth. Why is this important? Because under the Citizenship Act, those born in India after 1987 are citizens only if ’at least’ one parent is a citizen. The NPR, therefore, asks a question that has no conceivable bearing with enumeration – but every conceivable link with citizenship.
Therefore, please understand the chronology: An NPR will be conducted first. The information will be used as a base for a nationwide NRC. The NRC will force every individual to prove their citizenship to a government official, and even if they do, any person may object to it. And all of this is being done without any credible evidence of large-scale ‘illegal’ immigration into the country – in fact, evidence suggests the opposite.
No democratic country in the world puts its people through such a harrowing, painful – and utterly needless – exercise.
II/III.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/congress-didnt-tie-npr-to-nrc-bjp-move-sinister/articleshow/72987434.cms?fbclid=IwAR0D1IJo2w7jmItxQ9WIF1A--YFI_XtK-I2_F0kLuQ2f1H_QMrfVlCLl4E4
Congress: Didn’t tie NPR to NRC, BJP move sinister
TNN | Dec 27, 2019, 4:48 IST
Snipped
III,
https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/npr-2020-gazette-notification-missing-official-govt-websites-taken?fbclid=IwAR1IrLhGz8EQL6ZTBY3pUKr4n09d7uUJpKD3zlohimiUcy8_uGCe9h0y3Wg
NPR 2020 gazette notification missing from official gov’t websites, taken off?
The gazette notification dated July 31, 2019 had indicated that the National Population Register update was to begin in April 2020
Sabrangindia
21 Dec 2019
Image Courtesy: wikipedia.org
The official website of the Government of India about census related information, has one important notification missing… the one dealing with the commencement of the exercise to update the National Population Register (NPR).
This is curious given the recent offer by the government to rethink certain provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in wake of nationwide protests. The double-blows of CAA-NPR are seen by many as a threat to the secular and democratic fabric of the nation. Therefore, it is odd that an official gazette notification would not appear on an official government website, especially one dealing with the census.
The original gazette may be viewed here:
Snipped
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