Congress calls meet to brief leaders on ‘inbuilt dangers’

New Delhi: The Congress leadership has called a meeting of senior organisational leaders and MPs on Tuesday to give them a presentation on what the party sees as the “inbuilt dangers” in the Modi government’s version of the National Population Register (NPR). The meeting would also chalk out the party’s strategy to launch a campaign across states against the NPR enumeration exercise.

AICC general secretaries, other state in-charges and leaders, and party MPs have been called to the meeting where former home minister P Chidambaram and some others will explain the technical details of the NPR and how it is “designed to link to the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC)”, a party insider said.

Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, and some Congress regional satraps could also attend the meeting. Chidambaram is expected to explain how the format and intentions of the Modi government’s NPR are different from the exercise done during the regime of the Congress-led UPA.


Some Congress chief ministers have already stated that their states would not carry out the NPR exercise. The Congress, along with several other opposition parties, are also campaigning against the government’s CAA-NRC-NPR plank.

The meeting is meant to prepare the Congress leaders and legislators to carry out campaigns in BJP-ruled states where the state governments have resolved to carry out the NPR work.

JAILED MP-ELECT TAKES OATH, FINALLY
Atul Kumar Singh alias Atul Rai, the BSP leader who was elected from Uttar Pradesh’s Ghosi constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, took oath on Friday as a member of Parliament. Rai was in jail on rape charges and could not take oath so far. The Allahabad High Court has now granted him the two-day parole so that he could do that.

There had been questions about whether he would be able to take oath within the time bar or risk cancellation of his election.

Rai had surrendered in June last year after a woman accused him of rape. BSP chief Mayawati had called Rai a “victim of BJP conspiracy”.