"The Home Minister has explicitly tied Citizenship Amendment act with NRC," Shashi Tharoor said. (File)
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor today said that protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act could be defused if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah assure people that they would "drop the idea of the National Register of Citizens" and will no longer go to every door asking for documentary proof of "where your father and mother were born."
Speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode, Mr Tharoor also said that during the National Population Register (NPR) enumeration, Muslims would be asked to produce documents to prove their nationality.
"Home Minister has explicitly tied CAA with NRC. CAA says if you can prove you are from these Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, we will fast track your citizenship," Mr Tharoor said.
"Every Indian would be asked for documentation and 65 per cent Indians don't have birth certificates. If Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists don't have a birth certificate, they would be allowed for something else whereas Muslim without documentation would be asked 'how can we believe that you are not from Pakistan'," he said.
Mr Tharoor said that PM Modi and Amit Shah must assure people that they will no longer give power to officials to write ''dubious citizenship'' against names.
"But they are not prepared to give all those assurances and that speaks about their intent. Their intention is very much to identify people living in India," he added