Hyderabad: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi attacked the Centre on Thursday, June 25, over reports that a passport is not proof of citizenship and sarcastically commented that it won’t be long before the BJP’s membership card becomes proof of citizenship.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had stated on June 24 that a passport is merely a travel document that attests nationality and is not proof of citizenship. After media reports highlighted the point, government sources clarified that a passport has never been proof of citizenship, and no new decision was taken on the document by the Modi government in the last 12 years.
Quoting Section 6(2)(a) of the Passport Act, Owaisi said a passport can only be issued to an Indian citizen after police verification.
“It (Passport) is not a proof…birth certificate is not proof, an Aadhaar card is not proof, and even a voter ID card is not sufficient proof. Then what exactly qualifies as proof,” he asked.
He further said citizenship certificate is issued to those who get citizenship through registration or naturalisation.
On SIR of electoral rolls, which commenced in Telangana on Thursday, Owaisi said 12 documents were listed to allow voters whose names were missing from the 2002 draft list.
“We were initially informed that voters would receive a pre-filled form to verify, sign, attach a photograph to, and return. However, we have now been told that voters will have to fill in the details themselves using the latest voter list and the 2002 electoral roll,” he told PTI Videos.
He said the Election Commission did pre-SIR mapping exercise and that they requested the Commission to share that data with Booth Level Agents to help voters complete the process smoothly, but that request was not accepted.
He again requested the EC to provide its pre-SIR mapping data.
Owaisi said they sought inclusion of documents like PAN card, driving licence and food security card in the acceptable documents. But the EC has not heeded it.
There are concerns that if a person’s name is not included in the final roll, questions about their citizenship may arise, the AIMIM chief said.
“There is an apprehension among the public that they may be made stateless in our own country…not only (deprived of) voting rights,” he said.
With the monsoon underway and limited time available, completing the exercise will be challenging, he observed.
He said AIMIM has developed an app and set up help centres to assist voters, but said the SIR process remains very “difficult”.
Owaisi said they also requested the EC that anomalies be corrected.
(With inputs from PTI.)
