PANAJI: The opposition Congress party on Wednesday appealed to the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to convene a special meeting of Goa Legislative Assembly to pass a resolution on the lines of Bihar Assembly on National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the larger interest of Goa and the national interest.
Speaking to reporters, Congress communication department convenor Trajano D'Mello said that the Bihar Assembly on Tuesday passed unanimous resolution categorically stating that there was no need of NRC in their State and that the NPR exercise be done strictly according to the 2010 format.
Bihar has become the first State with NDA government to unanimously adopt a resolution to stick to the old National Population Register (NPR) pro forma, adopting only the transgender column from the new format recommended by the Union home ministry. The resolution also states that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was not needed in Bihar. None of the 54 BJP members present in the Bihar Assembly opposed the resolution when Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary sought to know if it had the consent of the ruling and opposition benches.
"We congratulates the Bihar MLAs of BJP and JD(U) who “heard the cry of the People” and showed their spine and courage of conviction in true national interest by supporting the resolution that rejected the NRC and accepting to drop out new inclusion of data in the NPR," said Trajano. Trajano said that the Goa government should learn from their Bihar counterparts and immediately convene an urgent Assembly Session and take similar steps in national interest and in better interest of Goa. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant should seek guidance of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is a senior politician and adopt a similar resolution, he said.
"We question the conscience of the Congress MLAs who switched loyalty to BJP and believe that their conscience on this NRC/NPR issue which has become a nightmare to every Indian Citizen (human being) will override their reasoning of greed that made them to move into the BJP", Trajano said.
All those who oppose NRC and the NPR (in the present form) are trolled by BJP leadears (Bhaktas) by hate speech and say that those opposing “should go to Pakistan”.
"Will the BJP leaders now demand Nitish Kumar, JD(U) MLAs and 54 BJP MLAs of Bihar who oppose the NRC and NPR as per the new format to go to Pakistan?" asked Trajano.
He said that these acts were destroying the spirit of pledge was taken “India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and Sisters”.