Modi's Un-parliamentary word Expunged from speech in RS

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Modi's Un-parliamentary word Expunged from speech in RS

PM had accused the Opposition of spreading "Jhoot"

Naidu expunges word from Ghulam Nabi's Speech

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Feb 7

The Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, expunged a word from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech in parliament on Thursday.

While bitterly attacking the Opposition (Congress) on the NPR & CAA, the PM charged them for misleading people an spreading "jhooth (lies)". This created a ruckus during the debate which went on late until yesterday. The chairman, sensing the mood of the House, immediately expunged the remarks saying anything said, done or any action which is un-parliamentary is dropped.

Today, his office issued an official order expunging the word “Jhoot” from PM's statement on the National Population Register (NPR).

Interestingly, the Chairman also expunged a remark by Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad “Gumrah” (Misleading). It is rather surprising that the PM had also used the same word “Gumrah” during the course of his speech.

This is the second time that the Chairman, M Venkaiah Naidu had to expunge a remark of the PM from his speech.

In 2018, some words were dropped from PM Modi's comments on Congress leader BK Hariprasad. It was on August 11 in 2018 when Modi had made the remark about the Opposition candidate for House deputy chairman, B.K. Hariprasad, while felicitating the winner, Harivansh. Many in the Opposition and outside construed three words in that speech as an attempt to crack a joke about Hariprasad's initials.

While Opposition members squirmed at the reference, which they thought was in poor taste, the BJP benches too remained stony-faced. Next day, Naidu expunged these three words. He also expunged a reference to these three words by RJD member Manoj Jha, who had quoted them while demanding their removal from the records. There was talk of moving a privilege notice against the Prime Minister for the remark. But it was dropped after remarks were expunged.

After CAA, battle begins on NPR now

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

After CAA, battle begins on NPR now

Maharashtra keeping fingers crossed   

States can delay NPR, not defy

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Jan. 16

A fresh row has emerged between the Centre and a few states on implementing National Population Register (NPR) exercise to begin on April 1 this year. Though the Centre is working hard to calm down protests on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by not notifying rules, some states have toughened their stance against the NPR now.

While West Bengal and Kerala have officially written to the Centre to put the NPR on hold, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Pudduchery & Ladakh (UT s) have not notified dates for conducting it NPR in their respective territories.

Three states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan — devised a new strategy by asking the Central government if the NPR data could be shared with them. These states said this would to help in ‘identifying genuine beneficiaries’ for their welfare schemes. Since the Centre has not responded positively, they are sitting pretty as well. Punjab said it would take a call only after the state Assembly deliberates on it. The NPR exercise has already been initiated in Odisha with the state government clearing all the parameters laid down in the NPR act.

The Centre is not in a hurry to press the states as they had already notified NPR implementation last July. These have developed cold feet due to one reason or the other. It would be interesting to mention that the NDA government revived the NPR in 2015 after the UPA stopped it midway in 2010 due to the launching of Aadhaar. The NDA created an electronic data base of 119 crores people in 2015-16 listing usual residents who provided Aadhaar, Voter ID card, ration cards and other details if they possessed the same. There may be some controversy whether providing details is mandatory or not. But the NPR manual of 2020-21 clearly says that this exercise is mandatory and time bound and those willfully defying could be prosecuted.

However, in this case, the state governments have developed cold feet which can lead to the delay.

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Centre, states heading for a show-down

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

special report

Centre, states heading for a show-down

Home Ministry may create its own machinery for NRC

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Dec 21

The Centre and some states may be heading for a show-down on the implementation of the amended Citizenship Act and NRC.

Since many of the non-BJP states including Kerala, West Bengal have expressed their unwillingness to implement the CAA and its off-shoot National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Centre is mulling creation of a new machinery.

If reports emanating from the North Block housing the Union Home Ministry are any indication, the Centre will designate its own officers to implement the CAA/NRC. Instead of the District Collectors or District Magistrates, the centre may assign the task to FRROs (Foreigners Regional Registration Offices) to conduct the exercise.

The Centre may be giving an impression of softing its approch. But there is no plans to dilute th CAA or alter the course of NRC or NPR. The NRC is not a time-bound exercise and no time-frame has been set out for this for counducting it across the country. Addressing a public rally in Jharkhand, Amit Shah said the NRC would be rolled out before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. This is a long shot but the Centre has not relented on conducting NRC across the country. Rather, the FRRO s who conduct physical verification of documents submitted by the foreigners. There are a dozen FRROs in the country. The Ministry of Home Affairs is considering to deploy these FRROs across the country and provide its own machinery for verification of documents.

While Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh reluctant to implement and Kerala declasring that it would not even implement National Population Register (NPR), the Centre is set ot create its own permanent machinery to conduct Census/NRC.

The NPR is an age-old exercise conducted by the Registrar General of India (RGI) under the Citizenship Act 1955 every ten years with the help of the state governments. The RGI had already issued notification for conducting NPR beginning April 2020 to September 2020 across the country barring Assam in July 2019. The NCR will follow only after the National Population Register (NPR) is available in 2021.

The Centre is busy creating an alternative machinery only in defiant states. There are 15 states where the BJP has its own governments and most of the Union Territories are also under its control. In these states the Centre can undertake Census and citizenship exercises with the existing set up of District Magistrates (DM s) andDistrict Collectors (DC s). But in remaining states, it will have to designate its own officers.

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Census Commission contradicts Home Minister on Biometric

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Census Commission contradicts Home Minister on Biometric 

Says Biometric particulars Required for NPR

Census Commission is under Amit Shah  

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Dec. 25

Union Home Minister Amit Shah categorically asserted yesterday in a TV interview that no supportive documents will be sought from the usual residents while National Population Register (NPR) exercise. He also clarified that no biometric data will be collected during NPR exercise except the Aadhaar number, if any.

But if one goes to the website of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India (RGCCI), one can find the NPR page link updated as late as December 19, 2019. Interestingly, the RGCCI functions directly under the Union Home Minister of India.

The RGCCI page on NPR clearly says “the objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. The database would contain Demographic as well as Biometric particulars.”

The NPR page link also says, “It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR. A usual resident is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more.

The RGCCI notification is very unambiguous also says that the The National Population Register (NPR) is a Register of usual residents of the country and prepared under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

The NPR notice says that under the Demographic Particulars, following demographic details of every individual are required for every usual resident. These are as under; Name of person, Relationship to head of household, Father’s name, Mother’s name, Spouse’s name (if married), Sex, Date of Birth, Marital status, Place of birth, Nationality (as declared), Present address of usual residence, Duration of stay at present address, Permanent residential address, Occupation/Activity and Educational qualification

No doubt, the first NPR was conducted under the UPA dispensation when P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister. But the same NPR data base was updated during 2015 by conducting door to door survey.

The RGCCI says that the digitisation of the updated information has been completed and the Gazette notification for conducting 2020 Census and NPR has already been issued.

It is, therefore, baffling as to why the website of the department conducting Census and NPR exercises contradict the Home Minister. 

See page link

http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-Common/IntroductionToNpr.html

Govt. puts NRC on hold, at least for now

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Govt. puts NRC on hold, at least for now

Says NPR not linked to NRC

Amit Shah also breaks his silence

New Delhi, December 24

The Modi government seems to put the exercise of creating a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), popularly known as NRC, on the back-burner. In the aftermath of wide-spread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 the government had already gone on the backfoot on creating a NRC. It clearly said that the National Population Register (NPR) had nothing to do with the NRC.

Today, Union Home Minister Amit Shah came out of the shell on the issue and declared that NPR cannot be the basis of the NRC. He said that NRC is completely separate exercise while NPR is only for population count in the country so that the government formulate its policy for the welfare of the people. He gave a series of examples as to how NPR would be in the interest of the people.

Amit Shah was at pains to explain in an interview to a TV channel today that the first NPR was conducted under the UPA regime in 2010 and the NDA government is conducting the second NPR.

He also explained that NPR data is a separate exercise while for NRC will be completely different and NPR data cannot be made base of NRC.

Even Information & Broadcasting Minister Parkash Javadekar had a tough time today to explain why NPR is being conducted. He was briefing the media persons post Cabinet meeting and replied to spate of questions on the NPR.

Javadekar also took shelter under the fact that the first NPR was conducted under the UPA government in 2010 and his government was not doing anything new.

There is no denial the fact that the first NPR exercise was created in the couuntry when P Chidambaram was Union Home Minister in 2010-11. Along with the Census operations, the UPA government also undertook NPR exercise across the country. Since the Aadhaar, a new brainchild of the UPA government, had emerged on the scene, the NPR exercise did not get any prominence and took a back seat. Javadekar did not tell is that the Modi government, through a special notification on June 25, 2015 updated the NPR prepared during the UPA era. The updated NPR has not been loaded on the website of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India (RGCCI) till now.

Reason being that the Modi government re-ordered up-dation of the NPR data across the country through a special gazette notification in July 2015. Thus, technically, this will be the third NPR in the country.

It may also be mentioned here that the RGCCI has also been entrusted with the task of preparing the NRC data and identify non-Indian citizens.

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