Seeking to allay apprehensions over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the wake of the new citizenship law, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said there has been no talks in the government on a nation-wide NRC as of now.
"There is no need to debate this (nation-wide NRC) as there is no discussion on it right now. PM Modi was right, there is no discussion on it yet either in the cabinet or Parliament," Shah told news agency ANI.
Modi, while addressing a rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on Sunday, had said his government had never discussed anything about an NRC apart from the one in Assam. His statement was seen as an attempt to mollify the raging protests over the amended Citizenship Act across the country. The opposition alleges that the CAA, along with the NRC, can be used to target Muslims.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, in its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, had promised to implement the NRC in other parts of the country. Addressing the election rallies, Shah himself had asserted repeatedly that the BJP government would bring a pan-India NRC.
Talking to ANI, Shah said there might have been some communication gap on the part of the government in reaching out to people over the CAA issue.
“You can see my speech in Parliament. In that, I have clearly said that there is no question of any minority community member losing citizenship,” he told the news agency.
According to the new legislation, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, but not Muslims, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.
The Union cabinet on Tuesday approved over Rs 8, 500 crore for updating the National Population Register (NPR) even as states like Kerala and West Bengal had stayed all activities in connection with the NPR considering apprehensions of public that it would lead to the NRC.
Amit Shah, however, categorically denied any link between NPR and NRC.
“NPR is register of population, NRC is register of citizens. There is no link between the two,” he said, adding that information obtained through NPR cannot be used for NRC.
