Bihar CM Nitish Kumar (TOI photo)

PATNA: A day after Bihar deputy chief minister and BJP politician Sushil Kumar Modi said the National Population Register ( NPR ) would be updated in the state from May 15 to June 28 this year, ally JD(U)'s national general secretary Pavan K Varma on Sunday asked party chief and CM Nitish Kumar to categorically reject the 'divisive CAA-NPR-NRC scheme'.

In an open letter to the JD(U) chief, Varma expressed surprise at the "unilateral" announcement of Sushil Kumar Modi. Modi's office had released a state government's notification on December 18 last year that the process to update the NPR would take place from May 15 to June 28.

"Using the powers conferred under the Census Act-1948, the governor of Bihar hereby issues orders that the work of house listing, house census and updation of NPR be carried out from May 15 to June 28, 2020, in the state of Bihar as part of the first phase of Census of India-2021," read the notification signed by the state's additional chief secretary (revenue and land reforms) and state coordinator, census, Vivek Kumar Singh.

Varma has been critical of his party's decision to support the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament. " ...in consonance with your own publicly stated views, and long established secular vision, may I request you now to take a principled stand against the CAA-NPR-NRC scheme, and reject its nefarious agenda to divide India and create a great deal of unnecessary social turbulence. A clear-cut public statement by you to this effect would be a major step towards preserving and strengthening the idea of India to which, I know, you yourself are committed.

The politics of principle cannot be sacrificed at the altar of short-term political gain," Varma, a former diplomat, wrote in his twopage letter.

Varma said the (Union) government had categorically stated that NPR was the first step to implementing NRC and since Kumar had said that Bihar would not have NRC, it followed that he must say no to the revised NPR as well.

