NPR data cannot be used for NRC: Shah

Shah said that the NPR will not affect the nationality status of any citizen of the country.

Seeking to put an end to apprehensions about updation of National Population Register, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that there was no link between the National Population Register exercise and the National Register of Citizen.

In an interview with ANI, Shah said that that information obtained through NPR cannot be used for NRC which was a separate process.

He said the union cabinet has not ever discussed NRC.

Shah's remarks came on a day the union cabinet approved the proposal for conducting Census of India 2021 and updating of NPR.

The minister said that while Census was held every 10 years and NPR was started by the United Progressive Alliance government and the government was carrying it forward as it was a "good exercise".

"It is a Constitutional provision and is the same exercise which was conducted by the Congress-led government earlier. It is neither a part of our manifesto nor our promise. It was a good move started by the Congress which is simply being followed," he said.

"NPR is register of population, NRC is register of citizens. There is no link between the two and the two have different processes," Shah said.

WATCH: Amit Shah says there is no link between NPR and NRC 

Shah said that the NPR will not affect the nationality status of any citizen of the country.

"NPR will not affect anyone's nationality. Even if somebody's name is missing from NPR, then too his citizenship will not be threatened," Shah said.

He said the names of people living in the country are in NPR based on which programmes are made. With West Bengal and Kerala having decided to put a stop to NPR exercise, Shah said there should not be politics over the exercise as it is aimed at benefitting citizens and for improving the planning of welfare schemes.

"I will talk and appeal to them that no politics should be done on this", Shah said.

Talking on Citizanship Amendment Act, Shah said that there might have been some communication gap on the part of the government in reaching out to people.

The HM said he had made it clear in his speeches in parliament during the debate over the Citizenship Amendment Act that no member from minority community will lose citizenship.

"I have no issue in admitting that there may have been some deficiency. But you can see my speech in Parliament. In that, I have said clearly that there is no question of any member of minority community losing citizenship," Shah said when asked if there was a lack of communication from the government on Citizenship Amendment Act whose passage was followed by protests in different parts of the country including Delhi.

The Act grants citizenship to those Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists, and Christians who fled religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

Shah dismissed claims of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi that the National Population Register was linked with the National Register of Citizens and said the two very different.

"I am not surprised by stand taken by Owaisiji. If we say the sun rises from the east, then Owaisi saab would say it rises from the west. But I want to assure Owaisiji too that the NPR is very different from the NRC and it has nothing to do with it," Shah said.

Owaisi has been one of the most vocal critics of Citizenship Amendment Act which was enacted earlier this month.