Several academics, former civil servants and other prominent citizens have written to chief ministers of all non-Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states urging them to refuse to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR) in their respective states.
“Many citizens have declared that they will boycott NPR and NRC: that they will not show their documents. But the people need the support of state governments such as yours, in this critical hour,” they wrote in the letter.
“This is why governments of states/union territories must clearly state they will not implement NPR. Only if enough number of non-BJP state governments who agree to do this, will we be able to stop the proceedings of a highly divisive agenda… This will be the federal pushback with the assertion of the constitutional rights of state governments, in the form of a unique civil disobedience by the state governments,” they wrote in the letter addressed to chief ministers of Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu among others.
Signatories include Romila Thapar, Harsh Mander, Rajmohan Gandhi, Prashant Bhushan, Shabnam Hashmi, Aruna Roy and former Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh Deb Mukharji among others.
They said that the Centre may try to implement and impose CAA directly but it cannot implement NRC or NPR unless the state governments make available their staff for the work that requires door to door collection of data and their collation.
Kerala has already moved Supreme Court against the CAA, and Punjab is to follow. Both states have passed resolution in their respective state Assembly. West Bengal will also pass a resolution against CAA on January 27.
Urging the CMs to follow the example of the Kerala government, the signatories said that all non-BJP state governments must also approach the apex court seeking the repeal of CAA amendments of 2003 that provide for the NRC and NPR. “If these are not struck down, the only path for the states to take is to disobey the union government, even at the risk of dismissal,” they said. “There is no other way to prevent the destruction of the Constitution.”
The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave four weeks to the Central government to respond to 144 petitions filed against CAA and refused to pass any interim order. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice SA Bobde asked the government to respond within a month.
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