CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury: 'Centre contradicting its stance on NPR'

Hitting out at the BJP-led Centre over the National Population Register (NPR), Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday said that the government is "contradicting its stance on the same".

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Yechury said, "They are doing NPR upgradation and have added additional criteria. They are also asking for information on twenty-one heads. Now it has been said nine times that NPR will be the basis on which the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be created. Now, this is something the government itself had stated. Whatever the Prime Minister is claiming on the NPR was not discussed with us."

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Sitaram Yechury, an outspoken critic of the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), questioned whether the NRC will be on the basis of NPR. "What is its final objective?" he asked.

PM Modi 'rattled' by anti-CAA protests

Earlier, Yechury accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of speaking "a bundle of untruths" during his rally at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on December 22. The CPI-M said that the PM was "rattled" by protests against the CAA and declaration of several Chief Ministers that they will not implement the NRC. In a statement, the party politburo said the protests against the CAA and the NRC will continue till the government stops the ongoing process.

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Anti-CAA protests across India

At least 18 people have died in Uttar Pradesh due to violence during ant-CAA protests, around a thousand have been arrested and many others booked. In the wake of violent protests, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to calm the situation by assuring that the CAA will not affect a single India citizen irrespective of religion. Despite PM Modi's message, protests continued across the country in full swing.

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(With ANI inputs)