No link between NRC and National Population Register: Amit Shah

New Delhi, Dec 24: There is no link between the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR), union minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday.

His remarks came a few hours after the Union Cabinet approved the proposal to update the NPR that seeks to create a comprehensive identity database of every "usual resident" of the country and has been described as the first step towards conducting an all-India NRC.

"There is no need to debate this (pan-India NRC) as there is no discussion on it right now, PM Modi was right, there is no discussion on it yet either in the Cabinet or Parliament," Amit Shah said in an exclusive interview to ANI.

He also responded to announcements by chief ministers of West Bengal and Kerala to pull back from the exercise to collect data for the NPR.

"I humbly appeal to both Chief Ministers again, that don't take such a step and please review you decisions. Don't keep the poor out of development programmes just for your politics," he told ANI.

Responding to a question on Owaisi asserting that the population register was effectively an NRC with a different name, Shah said the AIMIM leader always opposes whatever the BJP says.

"If we say the Sun rises in the east, he will say west. This is his stand. But I assure Owaisi ji also that this (NPR) has nothing to do with the NRC," he said.

Shah said NPR was not even in the BJP's manifesto but the government was just continuing "a good exercise" that was started by the Congress.