Protesters raise slogans demanding withdrawal of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) during a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Sunday. (Photo: Kasif)

At a massive BJP rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan organised on Sunday as a thanksgiving event to the prime minister for regularising unauthorised colonies in the national capital, an aggressive and assertive Modi sought to calm the nerves of the country by saying that his government had never discussed anything about the National Register of Citizens (NRC) apart from the one in Assam.

"I want to tell the 130 crore people of India that ever since my government came to power in 2014... from then until now... there has been no discussion on NRC anywhere... we only had to implement it in Assam to follow Supreme Court directives," PM Narendra Modi said.

This statement categorically negates what Amit Shah has been saying in the last two years-the latest on December 17 at Agenda Aaj Tak-that a nationwide NRC will be prepared soon.

Earlier this month, taking part in a debate over the CAA in Lok Sabha, Amit Shah said: "Maan ke chaliye NRC aane wala hai (But you should keep this in mind that NRC is about to come)." In an election rally in Jharkhand, he even set a deadline for NRC- 2024.

In fact, the promise of a nationwide NRC found a place in the BJP manifesto of 2019.

"There has been a huge change in the cultural and linguistic identity of some areas due to illegal immigration, resulting in an adverse impact on local people's livelihood and employment. We will expeditiously complete the National Register of Citizens process in these areas on priority. In future we will implement the NRC in a phased manner in other parts of the country," read the manifesto.

In that context, the prime minister's categorical assertion holds immense significance and indicates that the government is under tremendous pressure over the massive resistance to CAA, fuelled more by the fear over NRC.

The CAA makes Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and Parsi immigrants, who have entered India on or before December 31, 2014, from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and have stayed in the country for five years, eligible for Indian citizenship.

As it excludes only Muslim immigrants, many have expressed apprehension that when NRC will be rolled out, it will be an exercise to target only Muslim immigrants as all non-Muslim immigrants will get citizenship.

Opposition parties have claimed that this is a clever and systematic strategy to create a Hindu Rashtra, as envisaged by the RSS.

The protest against CAA and the proposed NRC turned violent at many places and have even attracted adverse international reaction.

Intellectuals, scientists, activists and students have blamed the Modi government of violating the secular credentials of India.

Clearly on a back foot, the prime minister not only sought to distance his government from the NRC, but also tried to put the blame on the previous Congress government. He said that lies were being spread about the NRC and it was the previous Congress governments which had mooted the controversial exercise.

For record, the NRC has been prepared twice in the country but only for the state of Assam. The first NRC was prepared in 1951. The second NRC, which was published in August 2019, was the consequence of the 1985 Assam Accord between Rajiv Gandhi-led Union government and student groups of Assam. The provision for NRC was included in the Citizenship Act 1955 through an amendment in 2003, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP government was in power.

The Assam NRC, however, was prepared under the supervision of the Supreme Court. The work on it was started by Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government of Assam and was finished by Sarbananda Sonowal-led BJP government.

The exercise excluded 1.9 million people, and according to sources, nearly 1.3 million are Hindus and indigenous tribes. The BJP and all other stakeholders have rejected the NRC saying that it excluded many genuine Indian citizens while including many illegal foreigners.

The saffron party's rejection of the Assam NRC and insistence of a nationwide NRC, including a new one in Assam, have given rise to conspiracy theories that BJP rejected the Assam NRC because it excluded more Hindus than Muslims.