As protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizen (NRC) gain traction across the state, Karnataka’s BJP government is aiming to implement NRC ‘at the earliest’.
Sources in the BJP said the central leadership has asked Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa to begin the NRC process as early as the first quarter of 2020. Being one of the largest BJP-ruled states in the country, the BJP wants to make the NRC exercise in Karnataka an example for the country, they added.
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has made it clear that the NRC will take place in the state.
In October 2019, the BS Yediyurappa-led government in Karnataka had decided not to implement NRC in the state. This new decision came a fortnight after state Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai announced that like in Assam, NRC would be implemented in Karnataka as well.
The government, in October, had said that instead of NRC, they will create a database of the immigrants living without documents in the state.
On Thursday, Yediyurappa made another appeal asking people not to fear CAA. The statement came hours after two people were shot dead in Mangaluru.
However, Bengaluru saw a massive protest against CAA even after police issued prohibitory orders under Section 144. Protests were also reported in major educational institutes like Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) and the Central College.
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