Author-activist Arundhati Roy on Wednesday claimed that the National Population Register (NPR) will serve as a database for the NRC and asked people to oppose the former by furnishing wrong names and addresses. Addressing a protest gathering at Delhi University, she also claimed that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was targeted against the Muslims of the country. Roy said that officials will visit people’s homes under NPR exercise for taking their names, addresses and other details. “They will visit your homes, take your name, phone number and ask for documents like Aadhaar and driving licences. The NPR will become database of NRC. “We need to fight against it and have a plan. When they visit your home for NPR, and ask for your name give them some different name… .For address say 7 RCR. A lot of subversion will be needed, we are not born to face lathis and bullets,” she told the protest meeting. [caption id=“attachment_7825431” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Writer Arundhati Roy addressing a protest rally against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Delhi. Image: Shubham Singh[/caption] Roy also lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “lying” on the subject of a nationwide NRC. She said, “Two days ago, the prime ministers made many false claims at a rally at Ramlila Maidan. He knows that the reality would be exposed on the internet in barely a minute. But he lied anyway because he knew that he has a pliant media in support of him. Some media channels had broadcast his entire speech but did not point out how his claims were false. The speech then reached areas where people do not have access to the internet, and do not know what is going on.” Modi, in a rally at Delhi on 22 December, had claimed that ever since his government first came to power in 2014, “no discussions had been held on a nationwide NRC”. Accusing the Opposition of spreading lies and creating fear among Muslims, he claimed that “no detention centres were being built in the country”. Opposition leaders had questioned the claim by pointing to previous statements by home minister Amit Shah, and images of detention centres across the country. Roy also made references to alleged police excesses in Uttar Pradesh and said, “We are all protesting here, but in Uttar Pradesh, the police are targeting Muslims. They are forcibly entering homes and destroying people’s belongings. In today’s time, we must stand up for each other’s rights and protect each other.” Roy had also taken part in the protests against the CAA at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on 19 December. Drawing on the demonetisation of 2016, she said, “Three years ago, we stood in line obediently outside banks as demonetisation was imposed on us, a policy that broke the back of our country’s economy. Are we going to stand in line once again, obediently, and comply with this policy that eerily resembles the 1935 Nuremberg Laws of the Third Reich? If we do, India will cease to exist. We are faced with the biggest challenge since Independence.” Over the past week, the promulgation of the CAA and alleged police brutality against the protesting students of Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi and the Aligarh Muslim University has sparked unrest in several cities across the country. With inputs from PTI