Centre starting NRC in the garb of NPR, says Congress leader Ajay Maken

Congress leader Ajay Maken on Tuesday alleged that the BJP-led government is "starting" the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the "garb" of National Population Register (NPR).

"In the annual report of the home ministry for 2018-19, it is clearly mentioned that 'NPR is the first step towards the creation of NRC'... The BJP government has been saying that NPR will be the first step towards the creation of NRC ever since they came to power in 2014. Whom are they trying to fool? Earlier they said there will be no NRC. Now they are starting NRC in the garb of NPR," Maken told.

The Congress leader termed Shah's statement that there was no link between the NPR and the NRC a "bigger lie" than Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark that the government had held no discussions over the NRC exercise.

"He is lying because of the anger of the people. Due to CAA, there is resentment among a large number of people. As soon as NRC is implemented, the bigger sufferers are going to be the poor people and the marginalised sections of the society. They will not be able to produce documents and they will be at the crossroads of losing citizenship," he said.

Maken, who was the Minister of State for Home when NPR was done in 2011 and the head of Census Programme in 2011, said that Congress-led UPA government never linked NPR exercise with NRC and accused the Modi government of linking the two.
"We also did the NPR in 2011, but we never took it forward to NRC. NPR was a local register of usual residents. The word usual resident is defined -- as per the definition of US -- as 'where a person has been residing in the last one year and if he wants to stay in the same place for the next 4-6 months'," the former minister said.

"It was usual residents data. He may be a citizen or may not be a citizen. As soon as you link this NPR with NRC, there are objections. Congress never linked NPR with NRC... NPR alone is fine, but when you link it with NRC, it becomes draconian. Then it becomes something which is a violation of human rights and of the secular credentials of the Constitution," he said.