The debate over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Census has moved to centre stage in Manipur over the past week, after the Centre deferred the Census exercise in the state and the Manipur Legislative Assembly once again urged the Union government to update the NRC before conducting the Census.
The two exercises, however, are fundamentally different — and that distinction is important to understanding what can actually happen next.
What happened this week?
On August 31, the Centre deferred the Census exercise in Manipur, just a day before the house-listing phase of the 2027 Census was scheduled to begin.
The decision followed a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and attended by Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, and senior officials. The Manipur government said the decision was taken after considering the “feelings and aspirations” of the people of the state.
The deferment came amid sustained demands from civil society organisations for an NRC to be updated before the Census. The Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation (JFD), which has been among the principal groups pressing the demand, had announced a phased agitation, including a statewide general strike, over the issue. The United Naga Council has also backed the demand for an “NRC first” approach.
The demand is not, however, unanimous across Manipur. Kuki organisations have opposed the call for an NRC before the Census. The Kuki-Zo Council has argued that population questions should first be addressed through a Census and has objected to the implications of using an old documentary cut-off for communities whose social and familial links extend across the India-Myanmar border.
On September 2, the Manipur Legislative Assembly added another political signal. Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh moved a resolution reaffirming the Assembly’s earlier resolutions of August 5, 2022 and March 1, 2024 and urging the Government of India to update the NRC in Manipur before conducting the Census. The resolution was passed.
An important detail emerged during the debate: opposition Congress legislators sought to specify 1951 as the base year for the proposed NRC, but that demand was not incorporated into the final resolution. The Assembly therefore reiterated its demand for an NRC before the Census, but did not itself establish a legally operative cut-off date.
Census and NRC are not the same thing
A Census is primarily a population-enumeration exercise. It collects information about the population and its demographic and socio-economic characteristics. The Census therefore concerns the people residing in a particular territory; it is not, by itself, a process for deciding who is an Indian citizen.
An NRC has a different purpose: it is a register of Indian citizens.
The legal distinction matters. Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 provides that the Central government may compulsorily register Indian citizens and maintain a National Register of Indian Citizens, with the Registrar General of India functioning as the National Registration Authority.
In other words, a state Assembly can pass a resolution asking the Union government to conduct or update an NRC, but that resolution does not itself create an NRC exercise.
This is the crucial distinction in the current Manipur situation.
An NRC cannot simply be “announced”
The experience of Assam demonstrates why.
An NRC was originally prepared in Assam in 1951, after the Census of that year. But the NRC exercise that was updated in 2019 was the product of a much more specific legal and political history.
The Assam movement of 1979-85 was driven in large part by concerns over alleged illegal immigration. It culminated in the Assam Accord signed on August 15, 1985, between the Union government, the Assam government, and representatives of the movement. The Accord established March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for determining who would be treated as a foreigner in Assam.
Parliament subsequently inserted Section 6A into the Citizenship Act, creating special citizenship provisions for Assam. Later, the Citizenship (Registration of Citizen and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 were amended to insert Rule 4A, which contains special provisions for preparation of the NRC in Assam.
The official Assam NRC authority notes that Rule 4A and its Schedule apply specifically to Assam and prescribe a process based on the 1951 NRC and electoral rolls up to March 24, 1971.
The Assam process was subsequently taken up under the supervision of the Supreme Court. It involved applications, examination of “legacy” documents, verification, publication of a draft register, claims and objections, and publication of a final register.
The final NRC was published on August 31, 2019. About 3.11 crore people were included, while roughly 19.06 lakh applicants were left out of the final list.
The point is not that Manipur must follow the Assam model. It is that Assam’s NRC did not materialise because a state government simply announced one. It rested on a specific statutory framework, a legally established cut-off, administrative rules, a defined verification process, and extensive judicial involvement.
Where does Manipur stand on NRC?
Manipur has been asking for an NRC for several years. The Assembly unanimously passed a resolution in August 2022 seeking, among other things, an NRC and the creation of a State Population Commission. The demand was reaffirmed in March 2024.
The state now has a State Population Commission and the Assembly has once again formally urged Delhi to update the NRC before the Census.
But the present position is materially different from Assam’s.
There is no notified NRC exercise currently underway in Manipur comparable to the Assam update. There is also no final Central government notification establishing a Manipur-specific NRC procedure or a legally operative cut-off date such as the March 24, 1971 date that applies to Assam under its special statutory framework.
That is why it would be inaccurate to say that “Manipur has decided to conduct an NRC”. What the state has done is repeatedly ask the Centre to initiate one.
What could happen next?
The immediate question is whether the Centre will now move from considering the political demand to establishing an actual legal and administrative framework for an NRC in Manipur.
The August 31 deferment gives the Centre additional time before the Census proceeds, while the September 2 Assembly resolution increases political pressure on the Union government. BJP’s Northeast in-charge Sambit Patra, meanwhile, has urged people to “wait for the next step” following the Centre’s decision.
There is also a continuing legal dimension. The debate over the Census and NRC is before the Manipur High Court, adding another layer to what is already a politically sensitive issue.
The stakes are particularly high because population data can eventually have implications for representation and delimitation.
Supporters of an NRC-first approach argue that citizenship and migration should be established before a new demographic baseline is created. Opponents fear that an NRC based on historical documents and an old cut-off could disproportionately affect communities with cross-border histories and migration patterns.
For now, therefore, the position is straightforward: Manipur has an Assembly resolution demanding an NRC and a deferred Census. It does not yet have an NRC.
And that distinction matters.
An NRC is not simply another population survey that a state government can order. It requires the Central government to establish the applicable legal and administrative framework, including the rules for determining citizenship, the documentary requirements, the verification process, and mechanisms for claims, objections, and appeals.
Assam shows just how extensive that process can become. Whether Manipur eventually gets an NRC — and what its cut-off date, eligibility rules, and verification process would be — remains a question for the Union government and, potentially, the courts.
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