Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi contradicted his closest lieutenant over plans for a nationwide register as he tried to defuse protests against a citizenship law in which at least 25 people have been killed, reports Reuters.
Modi also said that there had been no discussion on creating the nationwide register of citizens – directly contradicting key ally Home Minister Amit Shah.
"Since my government has come to power, since 2014 to now, I want to tell [1.3 billion] citizens, there has been no discussion on even the word NRC," Modi told a crowd of thousands.
"I must assure Muslim citizens of India that this law will not change anything for them," Modi said on Sunday at a rally in New Delhi, trying to stave off the biggest challenge to his leadership since he first swept to power in 2014. His government did not have a religious bias when introducing reforms, he added.
Modi's Hindu-nationalist government says the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which became law on December 11, is needed to give persecuted non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who fled to India before 2015 a pathway to citizenship.
But many Indians feel the law discriminates against Muslims and violates India's secular constitution by making religion a test for citizenship. They say the law and a proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) could be used to reduce Muslims to second-class citizens.
But speaking in parliament last month, Amit Shah told lawmakers unequivocally that the government would introduce a nationwide register, reports Reuters.
In April, he laid out the chronology for the process, telling reporters: "First, there will be a Citizenship Amendment Bill after that, there will an NRC."
In June, after Modi's party was returned to power with a thumping majority, President Ram Nath Kovind also told parliament that the register would be on the government's agenda.
Shah was appointed president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shortly after Modi's election win in 2014, a post he still holds. Modi named him to the powerful home ministry after he was re-elected this year.
"Just who are you calling a LIAR, PM?" wrote The Telegraph newspaper in a front page headline on Monday. Below, it highlighted comments by all three, asking: "Who's saying the truth?"
The prime minister's office did not immediately respond to questions on the matter.
BJP loses state election
BJP lost control of another state yesterday, adding to a string of electoral losses since last December amid protests that mark the biggest challenge to the Hindu-nationalist leader, reports Reuters.
Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) conceded defeat in the eastern state of Jharkhand, with an alliance of the main opposition Congress party and a regional bloc slated to take control of the resource-rich province.
'Highly unlikely'
Neelanjan Sircar, a professor at Ashoka University near New Delhi, said the ruling party was likely trying to confuse the issue with the electorate to beat back growing opposition.
"Is it credible that Amit Shah and Narendra Modi are not on the same page on something this important, on something that has taken up the headlines and caused protests the way it has? It just seems highly unlikely," Sircar said.
In his speech on Sunday, Modi also blamed the Congress party and other opposition groups for spreading rumours that there were detention centres for illegal immigrants in India. "It's a lie, it's a lie, it's a lie."
Reuters visited an under-construction detention centre in India's northeast in September.
Mohammed Naeem, who joined a demonstration against the citizenship bill and the register in New Delhi hours after Modi's speech on Sunday, said he was still fearful.
"The prime minister might say there is nothing to fear but do you see what is happening in Assam?" he said, walking amid protesters, joined by his wife and three young children.
"People are being forcefully evicted from their houses, detained."
Protests for, against CAA
And in a show of strength on Monday, the BJP staged a protest, attended by several hundred people, in Kolkata in support of the CAA, reports Reuters.
"Today, we have seen that Bengal stands with Modi ji and it welcomes the Citizenship Amendment Act," said Jagat Prakash Nadda, the BJP's national working president, using an honorific for the prime minister.
But groups opposed to the law gathered in the southern cities of Bangalore and Chennai, the capital New Delhi and north eastern Assam state, in the latest demonstrations against the CAA and the Modi government's proposal to conduct a nationwide National Register of Citizens.
In Assam, protests have been held since December 10, initially turning violent but largely peaceful over the past week.
Assam's finance minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, told reporters that since December 10, 393 people have been arrested for arson, violence and looting and 10 for "inflammatory" social media posts.
The Congress party held a silent protest in the capital against the new law yesterday, a day after Modi accused the opposition of pushing the country into a "fear psychosis" over the legislation.
In the southern city of Chennai, more than 100,000 people joined what the police described as a peaceful march against the law, a spokesman for the DMK regional party said.
Similar protests were also held in other southern cities, including Bengaluru and Kochi.