Govt is presenting NRC in the guise of NPR: Ajay Maken

Congress leader Ajay Maken alleged BJP government for implementing NRC across the country in the guise of NPR. He said that the concept of NPR brought by UPA was different from BJP's concept. He clarified that the Congress won't have any issue from NPR only if it considers for the usual residents and not for the citizens.

New Delhi: Congress leader and former minister of state (Home), Ajay Maken alleged the BJP government, on Thursday, for presenting National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the guise of National Population Register (NPR).

Maken said, "In 2019, around 30 lakh people have filled the pre-test forms of NPR in which the details of their parent's birthplace have been asked, that can be a problem for many people whose parents belonged to Pakistan or any other country. More importantly, it has a column which states 'if available, please mention' Aadhar card number, mobile number, driving licence number. This is a breach of privacy and if a person doesn't register his/her details in that column, he /she would be added to the D-category of NRC."

He also added that the lies of Modi government have been blown apart as the audit report of Home Ministry itself claims that NPR is the first step in the process of NRC.

While explaining the process of NPR that was being used during the UPA era, he said, "In November 2003, the NDA government started working for creating citizens identity cards as a pilot project. In October 2006, Government of India's Commission of Secretaries suggested stopping the project by considering it difficult and impractical. Hence, the Empowered Group of Ministers decided to stop the project."

He also said that NPR is all about the "usual residents" and not for the "citizens". However in the last five years, the BJP government has not spoken even a single word about the usual residents, but they talked only about NRC.

"The Citizenship Bill was amended in 2003. A paragraph was added to it (14 a) which says that the government 'may' compulsorily register every citizen and the government 'may' maintains a national register of Indian citizens," he further said.

Maken also clarified that the Congress party won't have any issue from NPR if some amendments are being made to the pre-test forms and its implementation would be same as it was done by the UPA government.