First NPR by UPA; BJP ministers have said NRC will follow NPR: Congress

New Delhi: The political war of words over National Population Register (NPR) intensified between ruling BJP and opposition Congress on Wednesday, a day after the Centre approved its updation exercise. BJP asserted that the first NPR was carried out during the UPA regime but now the Congress-led opposition was trying to create a confusion. Party spokesman Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told ET: “It was Congress government that wanted to bring NRC after NPR. After the prime minister and the home minister have said that there was no discussion on NRC, Congress shouldn’t try to create confusion.” Countering the charge, Congress leaders squarely blamed BJP for the confusion, saying that ministers of the Modi government have multiple times asserted in Parliament that NPR will be followed by NRC.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on August 28, 2012, the then minister of state for home, Jitendra Singh, had said NPR was the first step towards the creation of a National Register for Indian Citizens. However, Congress spokesman Ajay Maken clarified it was mentioned because it was part of the Act and the then UPA government never intended to implement NRC. “On December 10, 2003 (Vajpayee regime), the amendment to the Citizenship Act provided that the government may make a register of Indian citizens. We never went beyond the word 'may'. But this government has said it several times that they would implement NRC,” Maken told ET.

Maken said before beginning the NPR drive, the then UPA government had called a meeting of chief ministers in January 2009 for a wider consultation. “NPR was a local register of usual residents. The word usual resident is ‘a person who has been residing over the last one year and whether he wants to stay in the same place for the next foursix months’,” he said. “It was a usual resident’s data. He may be a citizen or may not be a citizen. NPR alone is fine but once you link it with NRC, it becomes draconian.” Echoing Maken’s views, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath said Congress also wanted to implement NPR but without NRC. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said: “When the government itself has said in the Rajya Sabha that NPR will become the basis of NRC, how much more would BJP lie and mislead the people.”