Haryana govt has no record available of CM Manohar Lal Khattar's citizenship: RTI

A Right to Information (RTI) query filed by a Panipat-based activist has revealed that the Haryana government doesn’t have access to citizenship papers of any state functionary. The state government doesn’t even possess documents that can prove the citizenship of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya, and other cabinet ministers.

On January 20, PP Kapoor had sought the proof of citizenship of the CM, his Cabinet ministers and the Governor. Responding to the query, Poonam Rathi, the state’s Public Information Officer (PIO), told him that they don’t have any information on any of these, reported NDTV. She further said: “The citizenship documents might be available with Election Commission.”

Interestingly, during the 2019 Haryana Assembly election campaign, Khattar had vowed to implement the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC) in his state to curb illegal immigration. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader had said the NRC in Haryana would be similar to that in Assam.

Later, in January 2020, he had informed the media that nearly 1,500 people living in Haryana are immigrants who fled their countries to escape religious persecution. Mentioning that most of them are from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – the three countries mentioned in the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) – he said they would soon be granted Indian citizenship. The CM also claimed that one of these families follows Islam, and Muslims are not guaranteed expedited citizenship under CAA.