New Delhi: Nobody will be marked ‘D’, or ‘doubtful’, in the course of compiling and updating the National Population Register (NPR), Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. He also clarified that no one will have to furnish any documents during the NPR process and that everyone will have the right to declare to the enumerators only the information they want.
Responding to charges from opposition leaders in the context of the Delhi riots that took place in the last week of February, Shah said the time has now come to clarify all doubts about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and that all parties should work towards it.
“I am saying as the Union Home Minister on the floor of Rajya Sabha - nobody will be marked D,” he said.
To this, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Congress party’s Ghulam Nabi Azad, sought a clarification. “If I heard this right, you just said nobody will be marked D,” he asked.
“Yes,” Shah confirmed.
Shah added that if any member of the opposition still had any doubts about the process of CAA or NPR, they were free to seek time and clarification from him for a discussion. “We will have a positive discussion on the issue in presence of respective officials so that no doubt remains,” he said. “All opposition party members can come under the chairmanship of Ghulam Nabi Azadji and I’ll give them priority time.”
Shah’s clarification came when he was responding to charges made by many opposition leaders, including Kapil Sibal whom he personally addressed, over the anti-CAA protests.
“There are many wise people present here, including Kapil Sibal who is a senior advocate in the Supreme Court. Cite to me one provision of the CAA which takes away the citizenship of Muslims of this country,” Shah said.
This prompted Sibal to remark: “Nobody, including us, is saying that the CAA is going to snatch away anyone's citizenship. Law says that when the NPR happens, there will be dozens of questions in it and the enumerators will mark 'D' against the names of citizens who will then have to prove their citizenship.”
Shah said he could quote speeches by many senior Congress leaders who have said that people’s citizenship is at stake on account of the CAA. He added that through public advertisements and press releases, he has repeatedly clarified that no documents will be sought for during the NPR.
“No documents were required in the previous NPR, the same will happen this time also,” he said. “Secondly, I have also, through the same means, clarified that people can share only the information that they willingly want to share. They will not be forced to reveal any extra information.”
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