Patna: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi’s announcement that the National Population Register (NPR) exercise will be held in the state this May has once again put CM Nitish Kumar in a tough spot regarding his stance on the BJP’s push for a National Register of Citizens (NRC).
While Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) supported the Modi government’s controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Parliament, the CM has since refuted the possibility of the NRC being implemented in Bihar.
The CAA seeks to ease citizenship for non-Muslim refugees from India’s Muslim-majority neighbours — Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The NRC, whose error-riddled implementation in Assam triggered much controversy last year, is meant to identify illegal immigrants settled across India.
While the BJP claims the two are not linked, the NRC and the CAA are seen as twin initiatives meant to harass Muslims who can’t readily produce documentation to prove their Indian roots.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in the wake of protests against the CAA that a nationwide NRC was not on the table, but the claim has been repeatedly contradicted by Home Minister Amit Shah that the exercise will be carried out across the country.
The BJP’s push for NPR updation amid this controversy has led to speculation that it might be carrying out the initiative as a precursor to a nationwide NRC. The NPR, which seeks to identify long-term residents of an area for better welfare delivery and doesn’t require any documents, was first carried out under the UPA government. However, a new format that reportedly requires applicants to state their parents’ birthplace has led to alarm. This churn seems to have left the JD(U) divided.
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‘Nitish effect’
A day after Sushil Modi’s NPR announcement, JD(U) national spokesperson and former diplomat Pavan Varma shot off a letter to party chief Nitish Sunday, urging him to take a principled stand on the CAA-NPR-NRC issue.
In the letter, Varma urged Nitish to “reject its (‘CAA-NPR-NRC scheme’s’) nefarious agenda to divide India and create unnecessary social turbulence”.
Expressing surprise over Sushil Modi’s announcement, Varma called NPR the first step towards the implementation of the NRC.
State minister and Varma’s JD(U) colleague Shyam Rajak, meanwhile, questioned Sushil Modi’s authority in making the announcement. CM Nitish Kumar, he said, was the competent authority to make such announcements.
“Even if it comes under central preview, the chief minister is the competent authority to announce the dates,” Rajak told ThePrint Sunday, stressing that central programmes are implemented in states with the consent of local governments.
However, most state JD(U) leaders maintained silence, pointing out that, given their strong rapport, Modi would have definitely consulted Nitish before making the announcement.
“Ever since the formation of the alliance between the BJP and Nitish Kumar in 1996 (barring a four-year split starting 2013), there has not been a single instance where Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi have contradicted each other,” said BJP MLA Gyanendra Singh Gyanu.
“The only time Sushil Modi and Nitish Kumar have gone against each other was after 2013, when the BJP was in the opposition. The two consult each other whenever a decision has to be taken.” If Sushil Kumar Modi has made an announcement, Gyanu said, it cannot be without consulting Nitish Kumar.
The “Nitish effect”, observers said, was clear in Sushil Modi’s announcement, as the deputy CM also tried to assure Muslims that the NPR exercise would not require documentary proof.
He also tried to address the opposition’s criticism of newer questions.
“The questions were increased to enlarge data collection. It is not mandatory for anyone to answer them,” he said. “If anyone does not remember the birthplace of their father or mother, they should skip it.”
The opposition, he added, was trying to create fear among Bihar’s Muslims through false propaganda.
‘No connection between NRC & NPR’
The CAA, which has been welcomed by non-Muslim refugees, is unlikely to have much of an impact in Bihar as the 3.5 lakh refugees who settled in the state after Partition have already been given citizenship.
A 2009 survey, carried out by the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) on the state government’s request, identified over 50,000 Bengali Hindus, mostly Dalits, who had immigrated from Bangladesh.
Muslims, however, constitute 16 per cent of the population. In Bihar, they are believed to rally behind Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, and Nitish’s efforts to woo them have not yielded results so far. In light of the JD(U)’s support for the CAA in Parliament, Nitish has reason to be wary of the potential impact of the NPR.
“Nitish Kumar knows that Muslims will not vote for him in the 2020 assembly polls,” said a JD(U) minister. “But he does not want a confrontation-like situation to arise between him and the Muslims.”
Hours after Varma’s letter to Nitish, Sushil Kumar Modi released the Bihar government’s notification, dated 18 December, finalising the dates for the NPR process.
However, the unnamed minister quoted above said the NPR was different from the NRC and “shouldn’t be politicised”.
“NPR is not an issue that should be politicised. It has been conducted earlier and the central government’s move is just upgradation of records,” the minister added. “There is no connection between the NRC and NPR.”
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Those objecting efforts of Central govt for implementation of CAA/NRC /NPR thinking their supports are sleeping from their side.
They are against the national interest. Anything which comes for implementation for Hindustan safety and security for the people of this nation they oppose for nothing . Please think of future generations. Our land forest,job, education,water, etc are reduced and day by day it is excused to merely 6 feet for grave. Don’t you think you politician are crushing future of nation. Please think for future generations and not for appeasement policy. Enough is enough. Jai Hind.
The lazy assumption has been that Bihar is in the bag. A little extra slack cut to CM Nitish Kumar and victory is assured. Lalu in all kinds of difficulty, his son not upto the mark, the Congress its usual, emaciated self. What needs to be accounted for is the weight of anti incumbency the CM has accumulated in the last fifteen years, the third term most disappointing for governance.