Ongole: Secular Forum formed to fight National Register of Citizens

Ongole: The Left parties and people's organisations formed Secular Constitutional Protection Forum (SCPF) against National Register of Citizens (NRC) in a programme organised in the NGOs Home here on Friday.

The members from the parties and organisations elected MLC Kalagara Sai Lakshmana Rao as the convener of the forum in the inaugural meeting. Speaking on the occasion, the Progressive Democratic Front floor leader in the AP Legislative Council, Vitapu Balasubramanyam said that India has about 780 linguistic groups and not like any European country to draw lines between the segments of population. He said that the Constitution of India was great as it provides equal rights and status to everyone in society.

Balasubramanyam observed that the NRC was designed against the interests of Muslims in the country which is also against the Constitution. He said that the Union government was trying to use National Population Register (NPR) as a prelude to the NRC in the country and was about to implement it as part of the Census data collection from February.

The MLC said that they had reasons for apprehensions as the NPR contains questions regarding the antecedents of the citizens. He said that the people on whom the tahsildar expresses doubts on the basis of the information provided would be shifted to detention centres for the mercy of rulers. He said that the NPR is not limited to Muslims, but everyone has a risk of becoming aliens in their motherland.

Forum convenor Lakshmana Rao said that after observing several mutinies, the British successfully divided Hindus and Muslims on religion lines for their security in the country. He said that the Constitution had said that everyone is equal before the law and no one is discriminated based on their religion or caste or creed. But after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, he brought out NRC in Assam, which proved very problematic. But Modi and Amit Shah want to implement the NRC throughout India in 2024, after conducting elections simultaneously in 2023. He questioned why Muslims were not being offered citizenship through CAA and why not the government includes refugees from Nepal, Sri Lanka and other countries also in the bill. Lakshman Rao urged the people to read the preamble of the Indian Constitution at the statues of B R Ambedkar on January 24 and organise rallies and human chains in front of Mahatma Gandhi statues on January 30 to show the spirit of democracy. He also demanded the TDP and YSRCP to pass a resolution in the Assembly against the implementation of NPR in the state.