Congress' Ajay Maken attacks Amit Shah's statement on NPR-NRC, calls it a 'lie'

Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken targeted Home Minister Amit Shah after he clarified on Tuesday that there is "no link between the NPR and NRC." Speaking to ANI, Maken said that it  is a "big lie" and a "bigger lie" than what PM Narendra Modi said at the Ramlila Maidan on Sunday. Ajay Maken, who was the Minister of State for Home Affairs when NPR was conducted in 2011 did not deny Amit Shah's claims that NPR was started by the Congress. Citing what he called the "annual report" of Home Ministry, Maken said the report clearly states that, "The National Population Register (NPR) is the first step towards the creation of the NRC."

'Congress never took NPR forward to the NRC'

Maken did not deny Amit Shah's claims that the NPR was started by Congress but,however, he said that the party did not take it forward to the NRC. He said, "We also did NPR in 2011 but we never took it forward to the NRC and the NPR what we did was a register of usual residents and it is a register wherein, the usual resident is defined as per the definition of the United Nations, wherein a person is residing in the area since last one year and continuously for six months and he wants to stay there again for six more months. So it is usual residents data, he may be a citizen, he may not be a citizen but as soon as you link this NPR to NRC, this is something which should be objected to because the Congress never brought it forward to the extent of linking NPR to NRC which the present government is doing."

Amit Shah denies linkage between NPR and NRC

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday ruled out any links between the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). He said, "NPR is the register of population, NRC is the register of citizens. There is no link between the two and the two have different processes." He further clarified that any information obtained through NPR cannot be used for the NRC process. The Home Minister's remarks came hours after the Union Cabinet approved the proposal for conducting the Census of India 2021 and also the updating of the NPR.

READ | Home Minister Amit Shah: "Modi Govt aims to wipe out terrorism in next five years"

READ | Congress leader Ajay Maken positive about Govt formation in Jharkhand with majority

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.

READ | HM Amit Shah chairs Jammu & Kashmir review meeting with top-level officials

READ | BJP trails in Jharkhand: Amit Shah accepts mandate, says 'dedicated to state's welfare'