Amit Shah dismisses Owaisi's claim of NRC-NPR being linked; mocks him for comparison

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday, December 24, seeking to put an end to the worries about the updation of a National Population Register (NPR), stated that there was no link between the NPR exercise and the NRC. Along with this, he dismissed claims of AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi that NPR was linked with NRC and said both are very different things. Amit Shah speaking to ANI indicated that Owaisi would always oppose the steps taken by BJP-led government.

'I am not surprised by the stand taken by Owaisi Ji'

Amit Shah said, "I am not surprised by the stand taken by Owaisi Ji. If we say the Sun rises from the east, then Owaisi Saab would say it rises from the west. But I want to assure Owaisi Ji too that the NPR is very different from the NRC and it has nothing to do with it." Owaisi has been one of the most vocal critics of the Citizenship Amendment Act which was enacted earlier this month.

Asaduddin Owaisi has claimed that the government has already started the groundwork for a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) by implementing the National Population Register (NPR). The Centre on Tuesday allocated a budget of Rs 8,500 crore for NPR during the Cabinet meeting which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a series of tweets, Owaisi ‘explained’ the link between NPR and NRC. “NPR is the first step of the National Register of Indian Citizens, which is the other name of nation-wide NRC. It’s important to understand the link between NPR and NRC,” the Hyderabad MP said.

'Govt has clandestinely started implementing NRC via NPR'

Talking to reporters in Hyderabad on Monday, Owaisi said the government has ‘clandestinely’ started implementing NRC via NPR. “When a nationwide NRC is done, every Indian would be in trouble. Not even five per cent of the people in India have passports. Can you imagine a hundred crore people standing in lines, for what… to prove my citizenship and who will decide that?” he said.

The NPR exercise is to commence from April next year. The NPR is a list of "usual residents" of the country. Updating of this data was done during 2015 by conducting a door-to-door survey. The digitisation of the updated information has been completed. Now it has been decided to update the National Population Register along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021 from April to September 2020 in all the states/union territories, except Assam.

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What is NPR?

The National Population Register (NPR) is a register of usual residents of the country being prepared at the local (village/sub-town), sub-district, district, state and national level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR. Under the NPR, a usual resident is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.

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