Ranga Billa, Kung Fu Kutta: Author Arundhati Roy urges people to give 'fake names' to NPR

NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing protests across the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019, controversial author and social activist Arundhati Roy has urged the people to give fake names to the officials collecting data for the National Population Register (NPR).

Roy, who was addressing a gathering of anti-CAA protesters at the Delhi University on Wednesday, said, ''When the NPR authorities will come to your place for your details, fudge your name. We will decide on five names, such as Ranga Billa, Kung Fu kutta...give your address as 7, Race Course Road." 

''We are not born to take lathis and bullets. We need to act wisely,'' she told the gathering. 

Attacking the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre, Roy said the National Population Register (NPR) will serve as a database for the NRC and asked people to oppose it by giving wrong names and addresses.

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She also claimed that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was targeted at the Muslims.

It may be recalled that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had assured people not to worry about their citizenship and also cautioned them not to believe in rumours being spread by anti-social elements about the CAA and the NRC to create unrest in the country.

PM Modi also directed his cabinet colleagues to counter the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) propaganda being unleashed by the opposition parties across the country.

The instructions came at an informal chat with the cabinet ministers on Tuesday. Sources stated that the Prime Minister was peeved at the attacks by the opposition parties and wanted his senior colleagues to counter these with facts.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on Tuesday said that there was no link between the National Population Register (NPR) exercise and the National Register of Citizen (NRC).

Shah said that no detention centre has been created since the Modi government came to power. Speaking to ANI, Shah said that detention centre has been there for years and is for illegal immigrants.

"There is no connection between the detention centre and NRC or CAA. The centre has been there for years and is for illegal immigrants. Misinformation is being spread on this," he said.

Responding to a query, he said the government has given time of six months to people who have been excluded from Assam`s NRC to approach the Foreigners Tribunal.

Because of the massive protests against the CAA and the NRC, the Union Cabinet has reportedly decided to shelve the controversial National Register of Citizens and resurrected the National Population Register, a relic of the Congress-led UPA regime.

The population register seeks to create a comprehensive identity database of every "usual resident" of the country. It defines “usual resident” as a person who has resided in a place for six months or more and intends to reside there for another six months or more.