All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief, Asaduddin Owaisi, has slammed Home Minister Amit Shah on his remarks about NPR and NRC. Owaisi has said that the Home Minister has been lying about the NPR and that the latter is not different from the NRC. Speaking to the media, Owaisi said, "Amit Shah is lying. There is no difference between NRC and NPR. I have government documents to prove that NPR is the first step of NRC. The Union Home Minister is misleading the country and all the political parties will be one in protest against this."
The AIMIM chief has been a vocal critic of the policies of the Modi government and has put up a strong protest ever since the Citizenship Amendment Bill was passed in the Parliament. Rajya Sabha member himself, Owaisi raised his voice in the Upper House when the government presented the bill.
Addressing the crowd on Tuesday night, Owaisi had challenged Shah on a one on one debate on the contentious issue of NRC and NPR.
The Telangana MP said, "I am ready to debate with Amit Shah on any news channel. What Amit Shah said that NPR has no links with NRC, he is lying. NPR, which will begin in April 2020, is related to NRC. When NPR had happened earlier, they had not asked the religion of your parents, where they were born. The old NPR did not ask if you have a passport or not. Amit Shah is hiding the truth."
In an interview given to news agency ANI, on Tuesday, Amit Shah said, "NPR is the register of population, NRC is the register of citizens. There is no link between the two and the two have different processes."
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