No one will be marked 'D' or 'doubtful' during NPR: Amit Shah

Seeking to dispel concerns about the National Population Register (NPR) exercise starting next month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that nobody will be marked "D" (doubtful citizen) and no documents need to be submitted by anyone during the updating process.

Shah made these remarks during his reply to the discussion on Delhi riots in Rajya Sabha after Opposition parties and some allies raised concerns and doubts about the NPR exercise, saying there are fears especially among minorities that it was linked to National Register of Citizens (NRC) and would have an impact on their citizenship.

The Home Minister said no one "needs to fear" about NPR and "I am saying as the Home Minister on the floor of Rajya Sabha that no one will be marked doubtful".

"No one from the minority community should have any doubt regarding CAA and NPR. I want to set the record straight. No document will be required to be furnished in the NPR exercise. It wasn't done in the past and it won't be now," he said.

"You are free to give whatever information you want...No one will be required to give information which is not there...No one should be scared of NPR process," he said adding that he would like to invite Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad and other Opposition leaders to discuss the NPR.

When Shah emphasised that no one will be marked "D", Azad asked him, "if I heard it right, you said nobody will be marked D." To this, the Minister answered in the affirmative.

To be kickstarted on April 1 along with Census' Houselisting survey, the NPR in its new format with new questions like parents' date of birth and place of birth had run into trouble with several Opposition-ruled states making it clear that they would not go ahead with the exercise, putting the Census 2021 exercise in danger. The Opposition has been arguing that the Citizenship Amendment Act, NPR and NRC are linked and it was targeted at minorities.

Besides Congress and other Opposition MPs, lawmakers from BJP allies Akali Dal and AIADMK too raised concerns about the apprehensions among Muslims about the NPR exercise. Trinamool Congress' Derek O'Brien had described CAA-NPR-NRC as a "toxic combination" while AIADMK MP SR Balasubramoniyan said the Muslims in the country are "really scared".

During his reply, Shah dared the Opposition MPs to cite one provision in the CAA that takes away the citizenship of Muslims. Sibal responded saying that nobody says that CAA takes away citizenship but the legislation has to be seen in the context of NPR and people, especially the poor, will be targeted.

On Delhi riots, he said authorities had information prior to February 24 that foreign money had been distributed in the capital and five persons have been arrested in this connection.

"We want to assure the nation that nothing will be done to give any relief to any guilty of Delhi riots...Instigating riots is not in our nature. Our nature is to stem them," he said.

Those who are responsible for the violence and those who conspired to trigger the riots will be punished irrespective of their caste, religious and political affiliations, he added.