November 21,2019 will always remain a day etched strongly in the memory of all Indians, it is on this day that Home Minister and Bharatiya Janta Party(BJP) president Amit Shah made an official party declaration about brining in an all-India National Register of Citizens(NRC). The National Citizenship Register was introduced first in Assam but today citizens across the country will be subjected to it and will have to prove their citizenship afresh.
The nationwide NRC exercise would be concluded in rest of the country just like it was concluded in Assam, the Home Minister Amit Shah also ensured roar no discrimination would take place based on people’s religious affiliations in the NRC exercise. He also pointed out that the process of NRC was conducted in Assam under an order of the Supreme Court and under a separate law.
But when the NRC would be launched across India, the exercise would find itself repeated even in Assam.
Official sources say that the nationwide NRC can only be conducted once the National Population Register(NPR)is updated and this will be done alongside the Census 2021. After the NPR exercise is concluded, the process of NRIC(National Register of Citizens) can start. For the time being, the NPR exercise is not being done in Assam, and the final NRC that was published recently will be updated alongside the NRIC.
Shah stood by the NRC exercise even while the Opposition raised many questions about it. He stood by the need for an NRC and said that it would provide citizenship with due dignity to Hindus, Sikhs,, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis from Bangladesh, Afghanisthan and Pakistan who have fled to India to avoid religious persecution.
Amit Shah said, “ Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Christian, Parsi refugees should get citizenship and that is why the Citizenship Amendment Bill is needed is that these refugees, who are being discriminated on the basis of religion in Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan, get Indian citizenship.”
The NRC has been criticised vehemently for leaving out the Muslim population of the country. The determination and confidence of the BJP is certain to introduce the NRC in this session of the Parliament. While the Opposition continues to criticise the NRC exercise of the present government for being discriminatory to the Muslims but the Home Minister Amit Shah said that Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Christian Sikh and Parsi refugees should get citizenship on specific grounds and this is why the Citizenship Amendment Bill was being taken into consideration. He also said that when the NRC exercise would be completed, it would allow Hindu refugees to live in India with full dignity and avoid the treatment meted out to them as illegal immigrants. He also ensured that the NRC was not a faith based exclusion and that there are no provisions to exclude any particular religion from the exercise. He also said that all legal citizens of India would figure in the NRC list and it is different from the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
