CHENNAI: Top AIADMK leaders, Chief Minister and party co-coordinator, Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister and party coordinator, O. Panneerselvam have urged the Central government that people should not be asked too many personal details in the 2020 census questionnaire.
“Details regarding mother tongue, family head's father, mother, their place of birth, date of birth and details like that, mobile phone numbers, Aadhaar details, voter ID and driving licence details should be avoided in the 2020 census,” the two leaders said, adding, that the Tamil Nadu Government has officially written to the Central government on the need to avoid these prickly details.
Both EPS and OPS, in a statement said that the AIADMK government will not allow any act or move that was against the minorities. “Our party and government will always be friends of Muslim society as always it has been,” the two leaders reiterated. The two leaders also sought the cooperation of the Muslim community to ensure that this traditional bond between AIADMK and the minorities was not undermined due to false propaganda of some of the opposition parties. Both EPS and OPS also stated that no guidelines had been issued to States by the Centre to implement NRC, except in Assam.
Resolution likely against NRC
Palaniswami said that aspects like an Assembly resolution against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) were “under the consideration” of the government. He also said the Centre has made optional furnishing of information like parents’ place of birth in the National Population Register (NPR), and therefore “there is no issue” with NPR.
“All that is under the government’s consideration,” Palaniswami said when reporters sought to know if Tamil Nadu will pass an assembly resolution on the lines of Bihar, which had resolved in the House unanimously that there is no need for NRC in that state. Palaniswami did not elaborate on the matter.
The Chief Minister, who had earlier said nobody in Tamil Nadu will be affected by the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), against which protests are still on in Chennai, said the census exercise was being conducted once in 10 years in the country. He recalled the NPR was “brought” in in 2003 during the BJP-led NDA rule while it was implemented across the country by the Congress in 2010, pointing out that the DMK was a constituent in both coalitions. The then DMK government had in 2011 implemented NPR across Tamil Nadu, he said.
