The Congress is waiting for official communication from the Narendra Modi government on the National Population Register (NPR) before articulating its position but sources said the party suspects this is a move to sneak in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in disguise and will oppose it.

Congress chief ministers have already rejected the amended citizenship law and said they would not implement the NRC. Party sources said going by information on NPR available informally on social media, the exercise this time is “fundamentally different” from that conducted in 2010-11 and is unacceptable.

Former Union minister Ajay Maken, who oversaw the NPR exercise in 2010-11, said: “The government’s intention is to carry out NRC in the garb of NPR. It is a lie that they are only implementing the law made by the Congress…. The biggest problem is the government’s intention, the trust deficit with the citizens. The government is not telling the truth.”

Maken continued: “Whatever is available on social media suggests that the new NPR is fundamentally different. In the 2020 version, new features include: Date and place of birth of parents, last place of residence, Aadhaar number, driving licence number, voter ID-card and mobile number. These features make the NPR drastically different. They are trying to convert NPR into NRC by subterfuge. This is not expected from an elected government.”

The NPR executed by the Congress-led UPA, in accordance with a law brought by the Vajpayee government in 2003, only asked for basic details, Maken said.

“That was an exercise to make a local register of usual residents. That was perfectly in tune with the United Nations definition. Now they are asking for date and place of birth of parents. What does NPR have to do with this information? That’s the preparation for NRC,” he said.

Many Congress leaders feel this information, in addition to other details, signals the link with NRC. Under the citizenship law, anyone born in India on or after July 1, 1987, is a citizen by birth only if one of the parents was a citizen of India at the time of child’s birth. For those born in 2003 and after, there is another condition: at least one parent should have been a citizen of India at the time of birth and the other should not have been an illegal immigrant.

Maken also said: “Nobody objected to NPR because we didn’t ask for unnecessary details and then there was no CAA which injected doubts and fear into the minds of people. It is sad that the intention of the government is doubted by the citizens.”

Asked if he was casting doubts on the intention of the government, the former minister said: “Absolutely. Yes, in the context of this legislation there are serious apprehensions and suspicions in the minds of millions of people. The government has been lying throughout — one lie after another. They are contradicting their own position taken on the floor of Parliament. They said in Parliament that NPR and NRC are linked. Their annual report, which is a policy statement, said NPR is the first step towards NRC.”

Maken added: “What should the people and the leaders of Opposition do when there is so much confusion? The Prime Minister is contradicting the home minister. The home minister repeatedly says one thing — in Parliament and outside — on NRC and then changes his tune. Amit Shah spoke of NRC with such finality and clarity in the past and now endorses the Prime Minister who said the NRC was never discussed by the BJP government since 2014. How do we take it — as lies, as falsehood, as turnaround, as U-turn… what?”

The Congress continued its protests against the amended citizenship law and NRC, with Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday leading a massive rally in Bhopal.

Thousands of Congress workers, ministers, MLAs and ordinary citizens took part in the “Save the Constitution” march, raising slogans against CAA-NRC and the Modi government.

Kamal Nath said: “The peace march that we have taken out is not just for Bhopal or the state, it is for the nation. We want to send this message from the heart of the country on how the central government is trying to disintegrate the country….”