"New NPR Questions Related To NRC, Government Conspiracy": Congress

The Congress on Thursday claimed that details collected from the fresh questions included in the National Population Register are linked to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and are part of a conspiracy by the government to push citizens' list in the "garb of NPR".

The NPR - a data base linked to population census- announced by the government on Tuesday, requires people to declare the "date and place of birth of both parents" for the first time. In the last NPR, data was collected on 15 criteria. This time data on 21 points will be collected. These include last place of residence, passport number, Aadhaar ID, Voter ID card number, drivers' license number and mobile phone number, which were not asked before.

"In this (NPR), a person like me might have a problem- if a person like me is asked where your father and mother were born, my parents were born in Pakistan. Where will I get their details," Congress leader Akay Maken said at a press conference today.

"Then there is another provision that infringes upon our right to privacy. They ask, 'if available', provide Aadhaar number, mobile number, voter id number, driving licence number. What is the need for licence number, Aadhaar number and my phone number in (proving) usual residence," he added.

"Many BJP leaders are saying that people would be asked to provide these details 'voluntarily'. I would like to draw your attention- it is written 'if available'. So if you say no, it means you don't have your Aadhaar number. Can I say I don't have my mobile number? Nowhere it is written that it is voluntary. So those who don't give these details will be marked, and they would be omitted from the NRC which will be prepared on NPR's basis.

"The questions they have added now, all these questions are related to NRC, and in no way the questions they have added are required for usual residence definition.

"This is a conspiracy of the government to present NRC in the garb of NPR," he added.

After the NRC was implemented in Assam earlier this year, excluding 19 lakh people, Home Minister Amit Shah had said that similar exercise will be carried out in the entire country to weed out illegal immigrants. However, earlier this week, after violence protests against the Citizenship Amendment Law and NRC, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mr Shah, in separate interviews, said there had been no discussion on nationwide citizens' list.

Mr Shah on Tuesday said there is no link between the NPR and the controversial NRC. "NPR is register of population, NRC is register of citizens. There is no link between the two and the two have different processes," he had said in an interview with news agency ANI.