Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Sunday that his party would boycott the National Population Register (NPR) and none from his party would fill the form under the new citizenship legislation.
“I and my partymen will not fill the form to determine citizenship under the National Population Register (NPR) as the new law has been brought to divert the attention of the people from the real issues which are hurting the economy,” the SP chief said at a press conference here on Sunday.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party won’t decide if we are Indians or not. We don’t want NPR. What we want is employment and livelihood. The experts are saying that the economy is in ICU,” Akhilesh Yadav said.
“Mahatma Gandhi had shown the way in South Africa. He had burned some cards. Here, we will be the first who will not fill the NPR forms. I will not fill any form, now you decide if you will fill it or not,” he said.
The Union cabinet had approved fund for updating NPR last week, putting the official stamp on a revised pan-India list of usual residents, but attempted to distance the exercise from the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC). The government said the NPR would be linked to the 2021 Census, and would not require documentation process on the lines of the recently concluded NRC in Assam.
However, the opposition parties have said the process is the first step towards a nation-wide NRC — a proposed exercise that has led to mass protests across the country over the past two weeks, particularly over its possible link with the recent amendments to the citizenship law.
The Samajwadi Party leader also mounted his attack on the BJP-led Central and Uttar Pradesh governments over the amended citizenship law as criticised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for police crackdown during the anti-CAA protests. Akhilesh Yadav blamed Yogi Adityanath for the death of protesters who were hit by bullets during the agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
“It’s the chief minister’s language that led to the deaths. And now prompted by his language, the state police officers too are speaking in the same voice,” Akhilesh said.
The former chief minister was referring to the comments made by Meerut’s Superintendent of Police (City) Akhilesh Narayan Singh, who was caught on camera telling a group of Muslims to go to Pakistan, during the protests the amended citizenship law.
“The actions of officers, who committed excesses (during the anti-CAA protests and related to it), have been caught on CCTV cameras. When we will form the government, we will order a probe and act against them,” the SP chief said.
“A sitting judge of the High Court or Supreme Court should probe the police action during the anti-CAA protests,” he said.
More than 20 people have died in several towns across UP in the last two weeks during violent protests against the new citizenship law that favours non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The government and the police have been criticised for being heavy-handed, a charge they have denied.
As Yadav targeted the Yogi Adityanath-led government of suspension of mobile internet services and prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, he also lashed out at the chief minister for his move to make protesters pay for the damages to property during the violence.
“The way this government is issuing notices to realise damages for properties. We too will realise damages for the properties damaged in 2007 riots in Gorakhpur,” the SP chief said.
He was referring to the riots in 2007 when his father and party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief minister of UP. Yogi Adityanath was one of the accused in the riots that year.
As Akhilesh Yadav congratulated various student leaders, who were recently elected to various students’ unions and admitted to the party, he seemed to hint at a struggle in the future. “Conserve your energies, and use it at the appropriate time,” he said.