Take Stand On NRC: JDU Leader To Nitish Kumar After Sushil Modi Announces Dates For NPR In Bihar

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi’s sudden announcement of carrying out NPR exercise in the state has snowballed into a major political crisis. Modi said that the update process of the National Population Register (NPR) will be carried out in the state from May 15 to May 28 this year, notwithstanding the West Bengal and Kerala governments' decision to put the exercise on hold in their respective states. The process of preparing NPR began in 2010 during the UPA regime which was completed between April 1 to September 30 that year, he said while addressing media on Saturday.

The sudden announcement has now caused deep unrest within the JDU camp. Senior party leader and close aide Pavan Varma has written an open letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar asking him to take a ‘principled stand’ against the NRC issue.

"You have always stood for a secular India... It is for this reason that I appealed to you to reconsider the party's support to the divisive and discriminatory CAB. I was deeply disappointed when my request went unheeded," the letter read. “I am greatly surprised that Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi has unilaterally announced that the NPR will be carried out in Bihar…Since, you have said that Bihar will not have the NRC, it follows that you must say no to the revised NPR as well,” Varma wrote in the letter.

I have written to Shri Nitish Kumar today against the unilateral announcement by Deputy CM Sushil Modi that NPR will be implemented in Bihar in May 2020. Have requested Nitish ji to categorically reject the CAA-NPR-NRC divisive scheme. pic.twitter.com/FRpiAKYdap

— Pavan K. Varma (@PavanK_Varma) January 5, 2020

The fresh controversy over NRC in Bihar comes days after another senior JDU leader Prashant Kishor voiced his strong opinion against the citizenship laws. Kishor has been tweeting against the Citizenship Act and the NRC consistently. On Thursday, Kishore had tweeted against the NRC. “The argument that no nationwide #NRC has been ANNOUNCED is not convincing as it is not the SAME as clearly stating that there will be No #NRC,” he had said on the micro-blogging site.

On December 13 when President Kovind gave accent to the legislation making it a law, Kishor had tweeted - “The majority prevailed in Parliament. Now beyond judiciary, the task of saving the soul of India is on 16 Non-BJP CMs as it is the states who have to operationalise these acts. 3 CMs (Punjab/Kerala/WB) have said NO to #CAB and #NRC. Time for others to make their stand clear.”