A citizen's list or National Register of Citizens (NRC) on the lines of the exercise in Assam has been prepared to carry out across India.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah made the announcement in parliament on Wednesday (Nov 20).

Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Shah said: "NRC is just a process to get everyone under the citizen's list. Therefore, no one from any religion should be worried about the list."

"The Assam exercise was carried out under a Supreme Court order," he said.

The Assam citizen's list put out in August, left out 1.9 million people.

According to the officials, most of these are people who have not produced adequate documents to prove their claims.

Although, they will not be declared illegal immediately as they have the option of appealing to Foreigners' Tribunals and approach the courts subsequently.

The Home Minister said people whose names were missing from the NRC can approach tribunals, and the Assam government would provide them financial help.

Earlier, Shah said at a rally in Kolkata that the NRC was a matter of national security adding "no country can run smoothly under the weight of so many intruders."

Accusing Mamata Banerjee of spreading lies about millions of Hindus leaving Bengal, he said: "I want to assure Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, and Christian refugees that they will not be forced to leave India by the government.”

"Do not believe in rumours. Before NRC, we will bring the Citizenship Amendment Bill and it will ensure these people get Indian citizenship."

The comments were viewed as a divisive by critics and opposition parties who accused the government of trying to intimidate Muslims with such statements.