CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday termed Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) a "package" that is "unconstitutional."
Claiming that NPR is the basis for NRC, Yechury after Congress-led Opposition meeting here, said: "The NPR will be the basis in which NRC will be enumerated. The NRC, CAA, NPR are a single package which is unconstitutional as it linked religion with citizenship. It is basically targetting the poor, marginalised, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who will be harassed for producing documents."
"We have declared that this is something which is not accepted. We want the CAA to repeal and NPR to be stopped," he said.
Yechury further appealed to all the Chief Ministers, who have announced they will not implement NRC in their state must consider suspending NPR enumeration.
"The Chief Ministers, who have declared that their states will not implement NRC, we urged them to also decare that NPR will not be allowed in their state because you have a Census, Aadhaar Card and epic number for all the voters. The motive of NPR is to form the foundation for NRC," he said.
Expressing solidarity with people and students fighting to "save the Indian Constitution", Yechury said: "To strengethen the spirit of resistance in a peaceful manner in defence of Indian constitution -- we appeal people to join us on January 23, 26 and 30 against Citizenship (Amendment) Act and NRC, in spirit to 'Save Country, Save Democracy and Save Constitution'."
Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had asserted that there was no link between the NPR exercise and the NRC and that the process of NPR cannot be used for NRC. In an exclusive interview with Editor Smita Prakash, Shah had said that the information obtained through NPR cannot be used for NRC. He had said the Union Cabinet has not ever discussed the NRC.
( With inputs from ANI )