In an interview to Indian Express, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that his government could utilise the example set by Assam in publishing a National Register of Citizens in phases for Uttar Pradesh.

Adityanath hailed the NRC in Assam as an ‘important and brave’ implementation of the Supreme Court’s order. He added that the effort necessitated the extension of congratulations to ‘the Prime Minister and the Home Minister’.

The NRC was first published in 1951. Since 1979, the demand for an updated NRC has been gaining ground in Assam and was channeled into meetings during 2005, aimed towards beginning the process of updation. At the time, the prime minister was Dr Manmohan Singh.

However, it was in 2015 that the exercise to update the NRC actually began – under the Modi regime – following a 2013 oder by the Supreme Court, which was hearing a petition by Assam Public Works. The promise of an NRC grew steadily into the BJP’s electoral plank in the state, even though now that it has been published to exclude 19 lakh people, the party has been keen to dissociate themselves from it. Thus Adityanath’s note of congratulations to the party’s two big faces falls slightly off the party line.

Also read: Accidents, Injuries, Panic: Sudden NRC Notices Push Assamese to Brink of Desperation

“These things are being implemented phase-wise and I feel that when Uttar Pradesh will need an NRC, we will do so. In the first phase, it has been Assam and the way it is being implemented there, it can be an example for us. Using their experience, we can start it here phase-wise. It is important for national security and it will also put a stop on the rights of poor being taken away by illegal immigration,” he was quoted by Express as having said.

It must be noted that while Assam shares its border with Bangladesh, from where migrants are known to travel northward, Uttar Pradesh has no such palpable pressure from immigrants that is known of, even though it shares a border with Nepal.

In fact, as the 2011 Census discovered, and as has been reported by Hindustan Times, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have a disproportionately high number of people migrating out of the state in search of a livelihood or for marriage. As many as 20.9 million people migrated outside the two states (over a period), says the report.

Census India’s published data, in fact, pegs Uttar Pradesh as the lone state with the maximum migration. As many as 2.6 million net migrants were counted as having left the state.

A Hindu BusinessLine report also refutes Adityanath’s claim of ‘the rights of the poor’ being snatched by illegal immigrants with the number that even in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar district, where NCR’s Noida and Greater Noida are located, just about 18% of the population was born outside Uttar Pradesh. Noida is a noted employment hub and is perceived as a migrant-friendly city.

In the interview, Adityanath also extolled the changes made to health and education sectors of the state by his government and said that he would respect the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case.