No decision on nationwide NRC yet, MHA tells Parliament panel

The Ministry of Home Affairs has said that it has not yet come to a decision on a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) in response to queries raised by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs headed by Congress MP Anand Sharma.

The committee had questioned the ministry saying there was a lot of dissatisfaction and fear with regard to the NPR and Census, since the Central government had been giving mixed signals about the nationwide NRC, as per a report carried by The Wire.

“All individual-level information collected in Census are confidential. In Census, only aggregated data are released at various administrative levels. Like the earlier Censuses, wide publicity measures would be taken up for creating proper awareness among public so as to conduct and complete the Census 2021 successfully. Questionnaires for Census along with that of NPR have been tested at Pre-test conducted successfully across the country. It has been clarified at various levels in Government time and again that till now no decision has been taken to create National Register of Indian citizen,” the MHA stated, as per the report.

Incidentally, the Home Ministry had on February 4, 2020 said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that the government had not taken any decision on preparing a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC), as reported by National Herald at the time.

In an answer to a question during the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai had replied that so far the government has not taken any decision on the NRC. "Till now, there is no decision on the preparation of the NRC for Indian citizens at the national level," said the written reply, in response to a question raised by MPs Chandan Singh and Nageshwar Rao.

It is relevant to mention here that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on July 17, 2019 said in Rajya Sabha that the Central government will identify illegal immigrants staying in any part of the country and deport them as per international law, as reported by National Herald at the time.

He was replying to a supplementary query posed by Samajwadi Party MP Javed Ali Khan on whether the National Register of Citizens will be implemented in states other than Assam, where the exercise was then being undertaken, as well.

"It is a very good question. The NRC is part of the Assam Accord and was also in (BJP's) election manifesto based on which the government has come to power. The government will identify illegal immigrants living on every inch of the country's soil and will deport them as per the international law," Shah had said in the Upper House.