*A very likely scenario*:
I. At the NPR/Census stage, no paper will be asked for.
(Though one’ll have to refer to in order to provide the Aadhaar no., details of passport/driving licence etc.)
II. Based on info collected, and *not collected* (for whatever reasons), the list of “doubtful citizens” wil be prepared.
III. *Those on this “list” will have to “prove” their “citizenship” before the concerned authorities to their “saisfaction”*.
It’d, as of now, be entirely up to the concerned officials what constitutes an “adequate proof” and what is not.
*One should not expect even a semblance of any uniformity*.
*It’d be all “discretion”*, unless (through court directive or) otherwise forced.
IV. Under that scenario, individual boycott is just no option.
It’d straightaway send one to the “doubtful list” and the nightmare that is to follow.
However, “boycott” by very high-profile individuals could be quite helpful.
V. *The only option is to try to ensure that the NPR-Census does not at all take place (over considerably large patches of area)*.
VI. As long as the census operation is not explicitly disentangled from the NPR, it has also got to be similarly opposed.
(The merging of the two, apparently, runs counter to the Section 15 of the Census Act, 1948.)
VII. Those who’ll, eventually, be unable to “prove” would turn “stateless”, with all the consequences to follow.
– Sukla
