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The HRD Minister, before taking questions from the press stated that NPR (National Population Register) is a regular exercise and just like it took place in 2010 in the UPA regime, it is being carried out 10 years later in 2020 and will continue in 2030 and so on. He also mentioned that during NPR exercise, when door to door enumeration will be done, no documents will be asked as proof for the information being provided by the individual. He also stated that no biometric data will be collected during NPR 2020.
He further said that the government does not want proof of anything as it “trusts the people”. He further said that NPR is a usual process and that there is only little difference between data sought in NPR and data sought in Census. The Indian Express had reported that the upcoming, and now approved, NPR ‘will require people to declare ‘date and place of birth of parents’ which was not asked in the earlier NPR — this holds significance in the context of the proposed nationwide NRC.’
NPR-NRC Connect drawn by BJP govt
When asked about cabinet’s discussion on NRC, he said that NRC was not discussed in the Cabinet and also stated that his government has never said and has never implied that NPR is related to NRC. To this statement, a member of the press pulled up an answer given in the last Lok Sabha i.e. the 16th Lok Sabha by Kiren Rijiju, the then Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). On July 22, 2014, Kiren Rijiju while responding to a question on NRC (National register of Citizens) had stated, “The Government has decided to create the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) based on the information collected under the scheme of National Population Register (NPR) by verifying the citizenship status of all individuals in the country.”
Mr Javadekar fumbled and was not able to provide a satisfactory answer to the same. In fact, on a question about NPR as well, Kiren Rijiju had stated, “The scheme of NPR has been reviewed and it has been decided that NPR should be completed and taken to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of NRIC by verification of citizenship status of every usual residents in the NPR.” Clearly Modi 2.0 regime is unprepared to face the ghosts of its own past.
NPR and Census
Further, when he was asked about the difference between NPR 2020 and Census 2021, he did not seem to have any information on that either as he said that there is very little difference between the two and one difference being that NPR is being carried out in 2020 and Census in 2021.
After the Cabinet approved the budget for NPR today, the PTI (press Trust of India) reported that the budget was Rs. 8,500 crores; this was later retracted by the PIB (Press Information Bureau) which issued a press release stating that the Union Cabinet approved the proposal for conducting Census of India 2021 at a cost of Rs. 8,754.23 crore and updation of NPR at a cost of Rs. 3,941.35 crore. It is pertinent to note that these numbers are exactly the same as mentioned in MHA’s answer in parliament’s recently concluded winter session.
The NRC question
The Government is now trying to backtrack from the “nation-wide NRC” announced so pompously by the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah in the beginning of the recent winter session. Towards the end of the session, MHA refused to admit conducting nation-wide NRC, in its official answers in the Parliament.
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