Contradiction in remarks of Modi and Shah on NRC, says Congress

On Tuesday, Congress leaders like Promod Tiwari, PL Punia and Ajay Maken reacted to Home Minister Amit Shah's interview with ANI alleging that there was a "contradiction" between his statements and the ones made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday, December 24 gave an extremely detailed interview to ANI dispelling all doubts and drummers surrounding the National Register of Citizens(NRC), Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) as well as the National Population Register (NPR.) 

Read: Amit Shah rules out link between NRC and NPR, says NPR is not about citizenship

Congress leader Pramod Tiwari, however, stated that the Home Minister in parliament had spoken about an implementation of a nationwide NRC. However, PM Modi addressing the same in his rally at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday stated that no one had talked of its implementation. "How is there such a mismatch in the two leaders' statements?" Tiwari asked.

Congress leader PL Punia also had a similar narrative alleging that there was a contradiction between the statements of Modi and Shah. "If there is no connection between NRC and NPR, why Amit Shah referred to NRC in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha debate," he said.

Read: Amit Shah dismisses Owaisi's claim of NRC-NPR being linked; mocks him for comparison

Party leader Ajay Maken said the UPA-led NPR was implemented during the UPA government but it "never took it forward to NRC". "The NPR is the first step towards the creation of the National Register of Citizens. This is written in the annual report of the home ministry for the year 2018-2019. The linking of CAA and NRC should be objected," he said. 

Read: Amit Shah dismisses claims of links between the detention centre, NRC and CAA

Amit Shah denies linkage between NPR and NRC

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday ruled out any links between the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). He said, "NPR is the register of population, NRC is the register of citizens. There is no link between the two and the two have different processes." He further clarified that any information obtained through NPR cannot be used for the NRC process. The Home Minister's remarks came hours after the Union Cabinet approved the proposal for conducting the Census of India 2021 and also the updating of the NPR.

(With Agency Inputs)

Read: Congress' Ajay Maken attacks Amit Shah's statement on NPR-NRC, calls it a 'lie'