The Union Home Ministry said no decision has been taken on preparing a National Register of Indian Citizens at the national level yet.
In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai stated, “Till now, the Government has not taken any decision to prepare National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) at the National-level.”
He said in Assam, on the direction of the Supreme Court, the hard copies of the supplementary list of inclusions and online family-wise list of exclusions in NRC have been published on August 31, 2019. On the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Minister said it has already been notified on December 12, 2019. In reply to another question on the number of Indians who have given up Indian citizenship, Rai said as per Ministry of External Affairs data, a total number of 1,33,83,718 Indian nationals are living in foreign countries.
In 2017, 1,33,049 Indians gave up their citizenship, in 2018, the number was 1,34,561, and it grew further in 2019, reaching 1,44,017 for the year. However, a drop was registered in the pandemic year, 2020, and only 85,248 took the citizenship of another country. In 2021, by September 30, 1,11,287 Indians have given up their citizenship in India and taken up the citizenship of another country.
Protests in 2019 were triggered due to the CAA Bill as they allege that the new law seeks to make Muslims second-class citizens of India, while preferentially treating non-Muslims in India. Protests led by these groups are worried that the new law discriminates against Muslims, and believe that Indian citizenship should also be granted to Muslim refugees and immigrants. At the same time, a new concern arose that those who could not prove their citizenship through ancestral land papers would also be branded as outsiders because the Bill indicated that passports and Aadhar cards were no criteria for citizenship
There were 25 people killed during the Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests and most of those killed were shot allegedly by the police.