So What Happens to the NRC and NPR Now? (The Wire)

By Aakar Patel

After implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, can we expect a National Population Register (NPR) and a National Register of Citizens (NRC)? That would depend on who in the government one believes. Let’s have a look at the real chronology.

After the Shaheen Bagh protests began, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, said at a rally in Delhi on December 22, 2019: “I want to tell the 130 crore people of India that ever since my government came to power in 2014…from then until now…there has been no discussion on the NRC anywhere… we only had to implement it in Assam to follow Supreme Court directives.”

His claim went against the public statements made by the home minister, Amit Shah, only days earlier. On December 10, Shah told Parliament “Iss desh mein NRC hokar rahega (there will definitely be an NRC in this nation)” — and “maan ke chaliye NRC aane wala hai (you must assume that NRC is to come).” At a rally in Jharkhand on December 3, he even set a deadline for the NRC’s completion: 2024. He said, “Every infiltrator will be identified and expelled before the next election”.

This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.