Nitish Keeps Big Brother BJP Guessing

After voicing his disapproval of a countrywide NRC, the Bihar chief minister now wants the contentious new questions in the forthcoming NPR dropped

- Amitabh Srivastava

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who has allowed himself a delicate ambivalence on the controversial CAA (Citizenship (Amendment) Act) but sounded quite categorical in his rejection of the proposed NRC (National Register of Citizens) has now demanded that the additional questions introduced in the upcoming National Population Register (NPR) exercise be dropped and the survey conducted as per the existing format.

“Even I will not be able to answer if you ask me my mother’s date of birth,” Nitish told media persons in Patna on January 28. “In earlier times, people from rural backgrounds did not keep a note of such details. There could still be a large number of poor people who do not know their parents’ date and place of birth.”

The new NPR exercise, scheduled this year, has 21 questions, six more than in the last such exercise in 2010. Some of the new questions, such as the place and date of birth of parents, have triggered a political storm, with opposition parties claiming the Modi government seeks these additional details for potential exclusionary use in the NRC to be compiled at a later date.