Law and disorder

Ambiguities in the CAA and the NPR process continue to fuel resentment and confusion

26-Pinarayi-Vijayan Finding common ground: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (right) and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala at an anti-CAA protest in Thiruvananthapura | Manoj Chemancheriyil

THE NEW YEAR has rolled in a challenge. The violent protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act may have subsided a bit because of strong government action, but doubts over the new legislation and its links with the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) still linger.

The NPR was first prepared in 2010 and updated in 2015. Opposition parties allege that this year’s update is meant to lay the groundwork for the NRIC.

With many opposition-ruled states suspending the process of updating the NPR this year, new dynamics have emerged in Centre-state relations. Kerala, where the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front is in power, recently passed a resolution against the CAA and the NPR update. All but the lone BJP member in the state’s legislative assembly voted in favour of the resolution.

If other states follow suit—West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee apparently intends to do so—the NPR update and the related exercise of Census 2021 will be mired in controversies and suspicion.

The NPR was to be conducted in all states except Assam, along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021 from April to September this year. Around Rs8,500 crore was allocated for both the tasks, with more than 30 lakh government employees involved in the census exercise alone. Most of these officials are part of state governments. So, if the states do not allow officials to initiate the NPR update, or if the residents refuse to cooperate with the officials, it may lead to newer problems.

The Union government says there is no link between the CAA and the NRIC, but its opponents are not listening. The Centre’s insistence on moving ahead with the NPR has further complicated matters. Even though Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that there is no link between the NPR and the NRIC, the procedural and legal ambiguities involved have made it difficult for ordinary people to understand the issues at stake.

While the census exercise is governed by the Census Act, 1948, the NPR is prepared under provisions of the 2003 amendment to the Citizenship Act. The 2003 amendment had also called for the preparation of the NRIC, which would help the government identify citizens and non-citizens. The CAA, which is the latest amendment to the citizenship law, allows the government to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

A protest in Delhi | Arvind Jain A protest in Delhi | Arvind Jain

The NPR was first prepared in 2010 and updated in 2015. A “pre-test” NPR was conducted in September last year, in which 30 lakh people participated. Opposition parties allege that this year’s update is meant to lay the groundwork for the NRIC.

An instruction manual for NPR enumerators and supervisors, released by the census commissioner recently, clearly states that the NPR is not a citizenship test. “The NPR will contain the details of all the ‘usual residents’ of the country regardless of whether they are citizens or non-citizens of India,” says the manual.

A usual resident is defined as a person who has lived in a specified area for six months and has plans to live in that area for at least the next six months. This means that foreigners, too, will be part of the NPR. Also, NPR data will be gathered and maintained at village, sub-district, district and state levels, while the database will be managed at the Central level. “Nationality recorded is as declared by the respondent,” says the manual. “This (inclusion in the NPR) does not confer any right to Indian citizenship.”

If the government wants to prepare the NRIC, the new parameters in the NPR database could come in handy. These parameters include the place and date of birth of a person’s parents, and they can be used by local registrars to verify a citizenship claim when the NRIC is prepared.

According to the existing citizenship law, all persons born in India on or after January 26, 1950, and before July 1, 1987, are Indian citizens by birth. But those born on or after July 1, 1987, need to have at least one of their parents to be an Indian citizen when they were born; while those born on or after December 3, 2004, need to have both their parents to be citizens, or one parent to be a citizen and the other to not be an illegal immigrant.

If the NRIC is initiated, such persons will need to submit documents to prove their citizenship claims. But the government, keen to dispel “misgivings” about the procedure, has maintained that the NPR data cannot be used for preparing the NRIC. “It is government’s stated position that no individual will be required to submit any document to any authority or enumerator visiting their household for the NPR survey. Information provided by the individual would be accepted and recorded accordingly,” said a home ministry official.

Earlier, NPR enumerators collected data from residents using 15 parameters. These included a person’s name, parents’ names, gender, date of birth, nationality, occupation, educational qualification and residential address. The pre-test NPR prepared last year had 21 parameters, including Aadhaar number (optional), voter ID and driving licence. With the raging controversy over the CAA, a lot will depend on how the government chooses to frame the final NPR survey.

“The government’s intentions are not clear,” said Congress leader Ajay Maken. “The new questions in the NPR survey may be used to check citizenship. This is not the NPR’s purpose. Moreover, details about mobile number, Aadhaar and driving licence intrude into the privacy of individuals.”