Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SP)
New Delhi, Dec 25: The nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) seems to have put the Narendra Modi-led government on the backfoot. Days after Prime Minister Modi asserted that there was no talk of implenting NRC at all, union home minister Amit Shah too has said the same, contradicting his own statements so far.
Speaking to a news agency ANI on Tuesday December 24, Amit Shah said that at present, no discussion on NRC is on either in the cabinet or the parliament.
"There is no need to debate this (pan-India NRC) as there is no discussion on it right now. PM Modi was right and there is no discussion on it yet either in the Cabinet or Parliament," he said.
On Sunday, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, had said in a rally that right now the government is not proposing to implement NRC all over India. The opposition leaders sprang to their feet to attract the attention of the Prime Minister that his own home minister had talked of making such a move several times. Even when the debate on Citizenship Ammendment Act was on in the parliament, Shah had talked of implementing NRC all over the country.
The government, on Tuesday, announced that the National Population Register (NPR)would be compiled in 2020. Shah asserted that NPR and NRC are two different things. Information obtained through NPR cannot be used for NRC and the two are separate processes, Amit Shah said, once again reiterating that the union cabinet had never discussed NRC.
Shah also stated that detention centres proposed at a few places have no connection with NRC or CAA and that these centres have been in existence in the country since long. He said that these centres were not constructed after the Modi government was formed, and were aimed at keeping illegal immigrants.
"Detention centres are a continuous process. This country has some laws, we cannot let anyone who enters the country illegally to live here. When these people get caught, they are put in detention centres for trial," he said.
The minister said that while Census was held every 10 years and NPR was started by the UPA government and the government was carrying it forward as it was a "good exercise".
"NPR is register of population, NRC is register of citizens. There is no link between the two and the two have different processes," Amit Shah told ANI.
With agency inputs