Mumbai: Despite the opposition of his alliance partners, the NCP and the Congress, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Tuesday his government would not block the National Population Register (NPR) exercise in the state.
“The NRC (National Registration of Citizens) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are two different issues. No one has to worry even if the CAA gets implemented. But the NRC will not be implemented in the state,” Mr Thackeray said on Tuesday.
On the NPR, Mr Thackeray said he would personally check the columns in the National Population Register to ensure there would not be any problem with the exercise.
“NPR is a census and I will go through columns given in the form. I don’t think there will be any problem with it. The Census is carried out every ten years,” the chief minister said while addressing the media at Sindhudurg.
“If the NRC is implemented, it will affect not only the Hindus or the Muslims but it will also affect the Adivasis. However, the Centre has not discussed the NRC as of now,” he added.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, however, said that Mr Thackeray is entitled to his personal views but all coalition partners in Maharashtra would soon have a detailed discussion on the CAA. “We will convince Mr Thackeray on the CAA,” he said.
The differences among the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government constituents – the Sena, NCP and Congress – came to fore after the Shiv Sena walked out during voting in the Rajya Sabha but spoke out against the CAA, whereas the NCP and the Congress voted against the law.
Later, Mr Thackeray made it clear that there is no reason to be afraid of the citizenship law.
