ON DECEMBER 24, 2019, CLOSE ON THE HEELS of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meeting in NewDelhi, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar held a press conference along with RailwayMinister PiyushGoyal, giving rise to speculation that something major was going to be announced. It was reasonable to expect that the government would announce something significant, given the nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register for Citizens (NRC). Instead, the Minister sprang a surprise by announcing the budget allocation for the National Population Register (NPR) and the Census. The Census was, in any case, due next year, with house-listing data to be compiled six months before the actual headcount in 2021. So, the announcement of an NPR in the midst of all the unrest was inexplicable.
The government had shifted the goalposts from the CAA and the NRC to the NPR now. The background for the NPR was being prepared amid more obfuscation.
The NPR was not the NRC and the NPR did not have any connection with citizenship either, the Minister said. The exercise for the NPR would start in April 2020 and go on until September 2020 where no proof would be demanded. Neither would biometrics of individuals be taken, nor would documents be required. “Jo aap kahogey, wahi sahi hai [what you say will be accepted]”, he said. The process would be one of self-certification. All-State governments would have to issue notifications for the NPR.
Javadekar also said that the NPR was being done to ensure that the benefits of various targeted schemes reached the beneficiaries. He added that the NPR was done in 2010 during the regime of the second United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and updated in 2015 by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh had even distributed national identity cards, he said.
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