The Government has “not taken any decision yet to prepare” a National Register of Citizens (NRC) at the national level, the Parliament was informed on Tuesday.
In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said, “Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) at the national level.”
The clarification is seen as an effort by the BJP government at the Centre to defuse anger and protests over the NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that has erupted over the past two months.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has time and again asserted that the NRC will be introduced throughout India and all illegal immigrants will be thrown out of the country through legal means.
He has said that people of the country have given its stamp of approval for the nationwide implementation of the National Register of Citizens through the verdict of the 2019 elections.
The home minister had also said that the full abbreviation of the NRC is National Register of Citizens, not the National Register of Assam.
The final NRC in Assam was published on August 31, 2019, excluding names of 19 lakh residents of the state.
Meanwhile, opposition MPs raised slogans against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Rajya Sabha earlier today.
The Supreme Court had last month made it clear that it will not pass restraint orders on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) or the National Population Register (NPR) or the National Register of Citizens (NRC) without hearing the Centre and thereby allowing the government to freely implement the laws.
Protests have erupted across the nation with violence and arson emerging from different parts of Delhi, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and the northeastern states of Assam, Tripura and Manipur after the citizenship law was amended.
According to the new law, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities, who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, till December 31, 2014, facing religious persecution there, will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.
Those opposing the amended law say it discriminates on the basis of religion and violates the Constitution. They also allege that the CAA, along with the proposed pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC), is intended to target India’s Muslim community.