The Congress has described the National Population Register (NPR) as an NRC-like exercise that is part of the RSS-BJP divisive agenda and called for its rejection.

Former home minister and senior Congress spokesperson P. Chidambaram told a media conference: “In terms of text and context, NPR 2010 and NPR 2020 are very different. NPR 2020 with the additional fields is a disguised attempt to do an Assam NRC-like exercise throughout the country and, therefore, it must be stoutly opposed.”

Asked if the Congress chief ministers will not allow the NPR in their states, Chidambaram said: “I don’t think the home ministry has sent any instruction so far to start the NPR. Let us wait for what they do, why jump the gun?”

Chidambaram elaborated why the party was rejecting the idea after launching the pilot project in 2010. “The widespread protests have forced the government to backtrack on what the home minister and other ministers had said in Parliament on many occasions (on the finality of the NRC). The government has, therefore, come up with the idea of the NPR and has attempted to liken it with the Census-related exercise…. There is a world of difference between NPR 2010 and NPR 2020.”

He explained: “NPR 2020 will be conducted all over the country; it will be done in the background of the disastrous experience of the Assam NRC and the discriminatory CAA; and the form that will be used in NPR 2020 will have many additional fields — all mischievous and irrelevant to a Census. NPR 2020 will ask for information on the last place of residence, the place of birth of the parents, voter identity, passport number, driver’s licence, PAN and Aadhaar. Who added these additional fields and why?”

Chidambaram said the Muslims would be the worst affected. “All other religious groups, even if excluded under NRC, will be included under CAA. Only the Muslims will be identified as illegal migrants under NRC and excluded under CAA,” he said.