New Delhi: The planned updation of the National Population Register (NPR) sparked a fresh political slugfest on Thursday with senior Congress leader P Chidambaram claiming that the Modi-led BJP government's approved exercise of NPR was very different and perilous in terms of its 'text and context' of the data collection done during the UPA regime in 2010.
Chidambaram slammed the ruling party for conflating the Congress-era exercise with what the BJP has planned to undertake, which the Cabinet green signalled on December 24 this year, adding that there was a "sinister agenda" behind it.
"The BJP-led government has a larger and more sinister agenda and that is why the NPR approved by them is very dangerous and different in terms of the 'text' as well as the 'context' of NPR 2010. If the BJP's motives are bonafide, let the government unconditionally state that they support the NPR form and design of 2010 and have no intention of linking it to the controversial NRC," he tweeted.
Chidambaram added that he is happy that the BJP has now released a video clip of the launch of NPR in 2010. "Please listen to the video. We were enumerating the 'usual residents' of the country. The emphasis is on residency, not citizenship," he stressed. The Congress and other Opposition parties had been crying foul ever since the Cabinet had approved NPR and claimed that it was the first step towards NRC. Bengal was the first state to reject the implementation of the NRC and had also stalled the NPR exercise.
Reacting to the allegations, Union minister G Kishan Reddy on Thursday dismissed as "baseless" the Opposition parties' claims on NPR that said it was the first step towards the implementation of the NRC and there was no link between the two.
"I strongly condemn the deliberate and baseless misinformation campaign being carried out by the Opposition parties and a section of media that NPR is a precursor to NRC. I want to make it categorical that there is no link between the two. The present NPR is part of 2021 Census enumeration," Reddy said in a statement. He further added that the government was only continuing the NPR exercise started by the UPA government in 2010 by adding three or four columns related to the place of birth of parents of a person being enlisted, Aadhaar card number and last place of residence, which are basic requirements for NPR.
However, Congress spokesperson and former Union minister who oversaw the NPR exercise in 2010-11, Ajay Maken reiterated that his party will not accept NPR in its present form as it is just a veil of NRC.
"The BJP government is trying to bring the NRC in the garb of the NPR," he said and added that the questions asked in the NPR pre-test questionnaire are not required for the exercise.
"Whatever is available on social media suggests that the new NPR is fundamentally different. In the 2020 version, new features include date and place of birth of parents, last place of residence, Aadhaar number, driving license number, Voter ID-card and mobile number. These features make the NPR drastically different. They are trying to convert NPR into NRC by subterfuge. This is not expected from an elected government," Maken added.
He also added that the exercise undertaken by the UPA government was perfectly in tune with the United Nations definition.