Decode Politics: Jharkhand near, BJP makes an NRC turn. But why it is more talk than walk

However, how likely is that?

Where does the NRC plan stand as of now?

While compiling the citizen register was a big talking point for the Modi government when it first came to power, in recent years, it has not made any commitments or moves regarding the NRC.

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP also dropped the NRC promise from its manifesto, after having vowed to introduce it in a phased manner in its 2019 manifesto.

Even the latest annual report of the Union Home Ministry, covering 2022-2023, mentions NRC only in the context of Assam. It remains the only state where an NRC has been compiled. Conducted in 2013-2014, the results of Assam’s NRC were published in 2019, but even here it remains unimplemented as its findings came under a cloud from the BJP-led state government itself.

In an interview to Times Now in May this year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said: “NRC mein abhi bhi… thoda Corona ke kaaran late ho gaya, thoda sehmati banane mein late ho gaya… toh abhi-abhi humne CAA lagu kiya hai (On NRC still… there was a delay due to Covid19, some delay was caused in creating consensus …but now we have brought in the CAA).”

Ahead of the 2024 polls, the Modi government had notified the rules for the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA, after delaying it for five years.

The last time the government replied to a question regarding the NRC in both Houses of Parliament was in 2021, where it said that no decision had yet been taken on the NRC.

What are the origins of the NRC?

NRC was first brought in by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2003 through an Act of Parliament. However, it was the Congress government under Manmohan Singh which gave it a real push. With P Chidambaram as Home Minister, the first National Population Register (NPR) was created in 2010. It was supposed to be the precursor to NRC.

The Modi government carried it forward and updated the NPR in 2015. In its first term in power (2014-19), the Modi government told Parliament on multiple occasions that an NRC would be conducted on the basis of National Population Register (NPR) data, even calling the same a “logical” result of the latter.

In its 2019 Lok Sabha manifesto, the BJP said there had been “a huge change” in the cultural and linguistic identity of some areas of the country due to illegal immigration. “This has resulted in an adverse impact on the livelihood and employment of the local people. We will expeditiously complete the National Register of Citizens process in these areas on priority. In the future, we will implement the NRC in a phased manner in other parts of the country,” the manifesto read.

In April 2019, in a speech in Bengal, where the CAA went down favourably with many old-time migrants to the state from Bangladesh, Amit Shah had famously connected the Act and NRC, saying: “Aap chronology samajhiye. Pehle citizenship amendment Bill aayega, phir NRC aayega (Understand the chronology. First the CAA will be brought in, then the NRC). The NRC will not only be for Bengal but for the entire country.”

In December 2019, he had reiterated his government’s stand during a debate when the citizenship amendment Bill was brought in Parliament. “We do not need a set background for the NRC. We will bring it nationwide. Not a single infiltrator will be spared,” he said.

However, the protests that erupted following the passing of the CAA over fears that, together with the NRC, the legislation was discriminatory towards Muslims and would end up targeting them, ended up giving the Modi government cold feet.

While the CAA took five years to come into play, the NRC has remained on the back burner since. In December 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government had not discussed the NRC since coming to power. All official government communications have reiterated the PM’s stand since.

Can the NRC be implemented and what do the rules say?

The NRC, however, very much remains on the horizon. Under the law, as the Modi government said in its initial years, the NRC is the logical followup to the updation of the National Population Register or NPR, which is to be conducted with the houselisting phase of the Census.

However, the Census, due in 2021, is of course itself much delayed. The houselisting phase is now likely to be held next year.

The NPR is essentially an enumeration of the “usual residents” of the country and a data-collection exercise based on voluntary disclosure of information by people. It is governed by the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, which were framed under sub-sections (1) and (3) of Section 18 of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

It is Rule 3 that provides for an NRC, with its sub-rule (4) saying: “The Central government may, by an order issued in this regard, decide a date by which the Population Register shall be prepared by collecting information relating to all persons who are usually residing within the jurisdiction of Local Registrar.”

Sub-rule (5) of the Rule then says, “ The Local Register of Indian citizens shall contain details of persons after due verification made from the Population Register.”

Under Rule 4, titled “Preparation of the National Register of Indian Citizens”, sub-rule 4 says, “ During the verification process, particulars of such individuals, whose citizenship is doubtful, shall be entered by the Local Registrar with appropriate remark in the Population Register for further enquiry and in case of doubtful Citizenship, the individual or the family shall be informed in a specified proforma immediately after the verification process is over.”