Unconstitutional package, says Opposition on CAA, NPR

During the meeting of 20 political parties attended among others by NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and the Left party leaders, a resolution was adopted in which it was decided to observe January 23 (birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose), Jan 26 (Republic Day) and Jan 30 (Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary) in an appropriate manner to “safeguard” the Constitution.

“The NPR is the basis for the NRC.  We demand the withdrawal of the CAA and the immediate stoppage of the nationwide NRC/NPR.  All the Chief Ministers, who have announced that they will not implement NRC in the state, must consider suspending the NPR enumeration as this is a prelude to NRC,” said a resolution adopted at three-hour meeting. 

In the resolution, the parties expressed “grave concerns” at the alarming deterioration in the livelihood status of the vast majority of the people due to the complete mismanagement of the Indian economy by the Modi government.  

“The economic crisis has pushed the economy to the verge of a recession with a record fall in the country’s GDP, unemployment levels highest in the last half a century, agrarian distress deepening with rising farmers’ suicides, massive closures and lay off in industrial units accompanied by rising prices of petroleum products, cooking gas, vegetables and all essential commodities is making people’s lives more miserable.  Modi government has created an economic disaster,” the resolution said.

Instead of addressing these issues and providing relief to the people, soon after assuming office, the BJP embarked on a dangerous course of sharpening communal polarisation and attacking democratic rights and Constitutional guarantees of the people affecting millions of people and marginalised communities, it said. 

Apart from abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and jailing leaders including former chief ministers, the CAA was passed without any meaningful deliberations by BJP exercising its electoral majority in a “tyrannical fashion”.