The country is presently experiencing massive protests against the contentious CAA and there is widespread fear, anxiety and discomfort with its alleged consequences for the India’s secular fabric.
But amidst this ongoing confusion, the Home Ministry has come forward to clarify that the government is yet to decide on implementing the National Register of Citizens(NRC)across the country.
While giving a written reply to a question raised in the Low Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai said, “ Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare(NRC) at the national level.”
It is to be acknowledged that this clarification comes between several anti-CAA and NRC protests going on in different parts of the nation.
According to the chronology indicated by the government, the CAA would be followed by the NRC. The remarks made by the Home Ministry about the NRC projects a departure from the comments made by the senior leaders and party members including Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP Working President JP Nadda.
The BJP’s manifesto for 2019 also had promised NRC in other parts of the country in a phased out manner. But contrary to these remarks, PM Modi had said in a rally in Jharkhand that his party had not discussed anything about a pan- India NRC.
Prime Minister Modi also denied that are detention centres in the country, saying that these were lies being spread by the Congress and its allies including Naxals and Urban Naxals.
The Prime Minister’s statement was then reiterated by Home Minister Amit Shah during an interview given to the news agency ANI, who said that the NPR data would not be used for NRC. The Home Minster issued a statement saying, “There is no proposal at present to conduct a nationwide NRC based on the NPR data.”
We know that protests sprouted up in different parts of the country from December last year onward and the announcement of the Citizenship Amendment Law created a nationwide havoc.
The Cabinet later cleared over Rs 3,900 crore for National Population Register. Coming in the backdrop of the ongoing protests over the CAA and the NRC, the NPR is being seen by many people as the first step towards the NRC, while the Centre has continuously tried to delink the two.
