No decision yet on NRC at national level: Govt tells Parliament

No decision has been taken yet on preparing a National Register of Indian citizens (NRC) at the national level while the move to update the National Population Register (NPR) and the first phase of Census 2021 was postponed due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has told the Parliament.

Union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai gave the information on Tuesday in response to Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi’s question about the NRC, Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and NPR.

The CAA’s passage in December 2019 to fast-track the citizenship process for non-Muslims, who have entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh before December 31, 2014, triggered protests across the country.

Opponents of the law insisted it is discriminatory and unconstitutional as it left out the Muslims and linked faith to citizenship in a secular country. They said it could result in the expulsion or detention of the Muslims unable to provide the documentation if the law is seen in the context of a proposed pan-India NRC.

A process carried out in Assam to detect undocumented immigrants led to the exclusion of around two million people from the NRC in 2018.

The NPR is a comprehensive biometric database of all “usual residents” in India. It has triggered controversy with its opponents arguing the exercise is linked to the NRC. The government has described the NPR as the first step towards a nationwide NRC. It later maintained there is no link between the two and that an all-India NRC was not on the anvil anytime soon.

The ministry of home affairs was granted an extension for the seventh time to frame rules for the CAA last year. Eligible people can submit applications for Indian citizenship under it once the rules are notified.