'Not conducive to hold NPR or NRC', says Chidambaram, cites increase in protest as reason

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said on Saturday that a state government can say it was not conducive to hold NPR or NRC if there is mass protest or disobedience. The leader had earlier stated the National Population Register (NPR) was made a "controversial" issue by BJP's approach to it.

Speaking to ANI, Chidambaran also defended the Kerala assembly adopting a resolution for the repeal of the Citizenship Amendment Act, saying that the MLAs have the freedom to express their views. He also said that Rowlatt Act and Salt Act were opposed by the people though they were passed by the then competent parliament and noted that 'mass disobedience to an unjust law is what Mahatma Gandhi taught us'.

"A resolution of Assembly can give expression to the views of the members. It is as if the members of the Kerala Assembly gathered at one place and passed a resolution. It is their freedom to express their views," he said.

READ: Chidambaram admits 'UPA set up detention camps'; contrasts them with BJP camps

Law of Land

Chidambaram further opined about the need for a state to implement the law of the land and said that will depend on the circumstances.  

"If implementing a law will lead to public disorder or a breakdown of law and order or mass disobedience or mass protest, if there is mass disobedience or mass protest, if there is likely to be breakdown of law and order, the state government can say -- not conducive for me to hold NPR, and therefore I can't hold NPR now," he said.

The former Finance Minister said that NPR-NRC and CAA were two sides of the same coin. "One excludes, one includes. NPR and NRC will identify and exclude. CAA will include. It is two sides of the same coin."

"They are Siamese twins. If you want to implement CAA, you should first identify who are the illegal immigrants and then you will have to admit Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, etc. That exercise has to be conducted after identifying, who is to be excluded first," he said.

"Suppose the state government employees say we will not participate in the exercise and suppose people protest when this exercise is carried out in mohallas, towns, wards, people come out in large numbers and say don't enter our streets, don't ask people these questions. Why the state government does not say sorry? The situation today is not conducive, not appropriate to conduct either NPR or CAA," he said.
 

READ: 'It's crime only if words turn into action': P Chidambaram backs Nellai Kannan

Chidambaram on detention centres

Admitting that detention camps had first been set up under the UPA, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, on Saturday, said that the camps had been set up on orders of the Assam High Court. He said that the difference was that the camps were set up under the Foreigners' Act and not the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which was what the BJP government was doing, he claimed. He added that the UPA had set up camps to detain 100-200 people, not 19 lakh people.

READ: ED questions P Chidambaram in UPA-era aviation scam case

READ: "NPR made suspect and controversial because of BJP's approach", says P Chidambaram

(With Inputs from ANI)