Congress’s big leap against CAA brings hope

Congress takes a big leap as it advocates an administrative line of action while continuing political protests on the CAA-NRC-NPR.

Congress called upon chief ministers to “consider to suspend the National Population Register (NPR) enumeration as this is a prelude to NRC."

So far, only two Opposition states - Kerala and West Bengal - have passed resolutions in the state assemblies against CAA and NRC.

Kerala became the first state to move to SC against CAA. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said“The act contradicts the basic values and principles of the Constitution.”

The Congress-led Opposition parties have taken a step forward, asking non-BJP states to adopt a resolution against conducting the National Population Register.

The resolution adopted after the all party meeting said, “The CAA, NPR and NRC is a package that is unconstitutional, which specifically targets the poor, the downtrodden, the SC/STs and the linguistic & religious minorities....

...The NPR is the basis for the NRC. We demand the withdrawal of the CAA and the immediate stoppage of the nationwide NRC/NPR.

All the Chief Ministers, who have announced that they will not implement NRC in their State, must consider to suspend the NPR enumeration as this is a prelude to NRC."

The move by the Congress is significant as the Congress is in power in seven states including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

If a state resolves to boycott CAA, NRC and NPR, the Centre might be helpless as it is the state’s human resource and machinery that are used for such exercises.

It will also raise serious questions on the federal system as citizenship is handled solely by the Centre (it is one of the subjects of the Central List) and states have little role in citizenship matters.

Congress's move to unite the states against CAA is not only significant but also a silver lining for the lakhs of people protesting against it.