Amid nationwide protests, no decision on preparing National Register of Citizens at national level, says Ministry of Home Affairs

New Delhi: The government has not taken any decision on preparing a nationwide NRC, it reiterated in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, amid protests against the citizens’ register in the country. “Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare the National Register of Indian Citizens at the national level,” Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said replying a written question. On 22 December Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government has never discussed NRC since coming to power for the first time in 2014. It has been discussed neither in Parliament nor in the Cabinet, he added. The Supreme Court-monitored exercise of updating the NRC was carried out only in Assam. The final NRC, a list of Assam’s residents published on 31 August 2019, excluded names of 19 lakh people, creating a huge controversy. President Ram Nath Kovind did not refer to NRC in his address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the beginning of the Budget Session on Friday. On 20 June 2019, soon after the formation of the new Lok Sabha, Kovind had said the Modi government decided to implement the process of NRC on “priority basis”. Kovind had said illegal infiltrators posed a major threat to India’s internal security and this was leading to a social imbalance in many parts of the country as well as putting huge pressure on limited livelihood opportunities. “My government has decided to implement the process of National Register of Citizens on priority basis in areas affected by infiltration. Security along the border will be further strengthened to prevent infiltration,” he had said.