Left, Congress to hold joint rally against CAA-NRC-NPR in Kolkata on Dec 27
Kolkata/IBNS: Trying to corner the Narendra Modi government, the 17 Left parties and Congress will hold a joint rally protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) in Kolkata on Dec 27.
The announcement was made by CPI-M leader Md. Salim at the party headquarters on a day the Centre approved Rs. 3,941.35 crore for updating the NPR. The rally will begin at Subodh Mullick Square and end at Mahatma Gandhi.
Slamming the central government over its NPR move, Salim said, "At a time several Chief Ministers have opposed the NPR and stopped works related to it, the Centre went along with its own agenda and allocated Rs. 8,500 crores for NPR."
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan have put a hold on all works related to NPR considering it as a step towards the NRC.
In an around 45 minutes of a press conference, Salim torn apart Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the latter's Sunday speech at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said nothing has been discussed by the Centre regarding NRC.
"The Prime Minister in several rallies as well as in Parliament had spoke about NRC which will follow CAA. During Jharkhand elections, the BJP had said all infiltrators will be thrown out through NRC. Modi has shamelessly lied," Salim said.
Clearly objecting to the NPR, Salim said the Left party welcomes Census and added, "NPR is a tool to segregate the desirables and non-desirables on the basis of religion."
The last time NPR- which is a list of "usual residents" of the country- was updated was in 2015.
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