PM heads lie manufacturing factory: CPM on CAA-NPR-NRC

Describing CAA-NPR-NRC as a three pronged "attack on the heart of India" by the BJP government, the CPI(M) on Tuesday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is heading a "lie manufacturing factory" on the issue and that is the tragedy that the country faces now.

In a booklet 'CAA, NRC, NPR: Ten Big Lies of the Modi Government', the party said the Modi-Amit Shah combine have now out their "lie manufacturing factory" to work on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) while comparing it to the Nazi propaganda.

"The attack on the heart of India by the Modi Government has three prongs: the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR)...The Cabinet has taken a decision to immediately start preparations for updating the National Population Register. After the passage of the CAA...this is the second dangerous step at setting up a framework to aggressively push for communal profiling in citizenship rights," it said.

The party seeks to counter the government and BJP campaign that the CAA is not discriminatory, there is no discussion on NRC, there is no link between NPR and NRC, there is no detention centres and no force has been used against anti-CAA protesters among others.

"The tragedy for India is that the Prime Minister himself is the head of the lie manufacturing factory," it said while referring to his statement that there was no discussion about NRC since 2014 after the first Modi government came into power. The booklet also referred to the President's Address in June 2019, Home Minister Shah's response in Rajya Sabha in November besides citing nine replies in Parliament regarding NRC.

Countering claims that CAA is not discriminatory, it said this was for the first time in independent India that religion has become a ground for becoming the citizen. "Say that there are two persons who have been residing in India with the same documents, proof of their residency but no proof regarding their ancestors. If the person is a non-Muslim he or she becomes “legal” and if a person is Muslim, he or she is considered illegal," it said.

Emphasising that the CAA and the NRC are "closely interconnected", the CPI(M) alleged that the BJP plan is to first implement the CAA which will give citizenship rights to all non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. "Then the NRC will identify infiltrators. What is the difference between infiltrators and refugees? Only the Muslims do not qualify in CAA as refugees, and are therefore infiltrators. The deadly link has been made clear by BJP...," it said citing statements of Shah and BJP working president J P Nadda.

On BJP's counter attack on Opposition that they had supported Hindu migrant communities earlier but now are against them, it said it was "wrong to conflate concern for the rights of deprived sections to a toxic policy of exclusion" from citizenship rights as is being done by the Modi government. It said the CPI(M) had been demanded Scheduled Caste status for Namashudra Dalit communities among refugees from Bangladesh, which has been done in West Bengal but not in BJP-ruled states.

While the government claimed that no force has been used against anti-CAA protesters, the booklet claimed violence has occurred only in BJP-ruled states which have “come down with brutal repression” against the protests. “Massive and peaceful rallies have been held in all non-BJP ruled States where there has been no violence,” it said.

“More than 21 people have been killed in police firing in UP and the figure is increasing every day. The claim that police did not fire is ridiculous and absurd. Did the protesters kill themselves?” it added.