The Congress on Tuesday alleged that the government was trying to link the National Population Register with the National Register of Citizens and termed it draconian and against the secular credentials of the Constitution.
Congress senior spokesperson Ajay Maken said the home ministry, in its annual report, has stated that the NPR is the first step to NRC and alleged that the government is linking the two.
Claiming that the then minister of state of the home ministry had made a similar statement in 2014, the opposition party said that the government is now caught in a trap of its own.
Shah's statement that there is no link between the NPR and the NRC is a "bigger lie" than what the prime minister said at the Ramlila ground on Sunday, Maken said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Sunday made it clear that there is no talk of NRC being implemented in the country, a stand that goes in total variance with home minister Amit Shah's claim that the NRC will be implemented.
The NPR is a list of "usual residents" of the country.
A "usual resident" is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.
The data for NPR was collected in 2010 along with the house-listing phase of Census of India 2011.
Maken said that during the 2021 Census, if the NPR is conducted in this way then it will be objectionable.
"He is lying because of the anger of the people," he said on Shah's statement on NRC.
The Congress said that for the first time, because of the amended Citizenship Act, there is a deep resentment among a large number of people in the country as the biggest sufferers after the implementation of the NRC would be the poor and the marginalised.
"They will be at the crossroads of losing citizenship," he said.
Admitting that the Congress started the NPR, Maken said, "We started it, but we never linked it to the NRC. Who is linking the NPR to the NRC?"
"NPR alone is fine, but when you link it with NRC, it becomes draconian. Then it becomes something which is a violation of human rights and of the secular credentials of the Constitution," he said.
The Congress leader also showed the annual report of the home ministry in which it stated that the National Population Register is the first step towards the National Register of Citizens.
"This means that they have already announced the policy of the government. The latest annual report of the BJP government clearly says that the NPR is the first step towards the creation of the NRC," he said.
"Once again the BJP government is caught in a trap of their own making. 2018-19 Annual Report of the Union home ministry clearly states NPR is first step to NRC. Also in 2014, former MoS Home Ministry Kiren Rijiju replied to a question in Rajya Sabha stating the same. Who's lying now," the Congress asked on its Twitter handle.
Maken alleged that since the last five years, the BJP government has been saying so again and again. "Who are they fooling now," he asked.
Earlier, they said they will bring NRC. Now they have done it in the garb of NPR, he alleged, adding that as soon as you link the NPR to the NRC, "this is something to be objected to. Because, the Congress never took the step to link NPR with NRC."
All through, the government has been saying that the NPR is the first step towards the NRC, Maken said.
"Why didn't the home minister earlier refute this when it was brought out in the policy document of the government, the annual report of the Home Ministry," he asked.
The Trinamool Congress said that Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to "fool and cheat" the people of the country as the population register is the "first step towards NRC".
"BJP is cheating the people. The cabinet decision on NPR has been taken and funds approved. NPR is the first step of the NRC," O'Brien, who is the TMC Rajya Sabha parliamentary party leader, said.
Elaborating, he said BJP is cheating the people as NPR will be carried out alongside the census. This will confuse the innocent people who will think it is the census and not the first step of the NRC.
To buttress his point, O'Brien said that the government had in a written reply in Parliament in 2014 said that the NPR by verifying the citizenship status of every usual resident is the first step towards creation of National Register of Indian Citizens.
The Trinamool Congress, which has been at the forefront of protests against the proposed NRC and the newly amended citizenship law, has already stayed the process of updation of NPR in West Bengal.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav aslo attacked the BJP government, saying its "hidden motives" to have a National Register of Citizens has been exposed.
"When the government itself said in Rajya Sabha that NPR will be the basis of NRC, how much lie these BJP men will speak and mislead people? Their hidden motives stand exposed. The tenure for those, who are seek to destroy the unity the country, is drawing closer," Akhilesh said in a tweet in Hindi.
The government on Tuesday approved nearly Rs 12,700 crore for carrying out the Census 2021 and updating the National Population Register, and made it clear that NPR has no relation with the contentious National Register of Citizens.
However, home ministry officials said "at present there is no proposal to create the NRC in the country based on the NPR data".
The Union cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared the proposal for conducting the Census 2021 at a cost of Rs 8,754.23 crore and updating the NPR at a cost of Rs 3,941.35 crore.
