DN&V Correspondent
New Delhi, December 03: The Log Party today condemned the NDA government for adopting questionable approach in implementing National Register of Citizenship (NRC) and proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which is slated to be taken up in Parliament.
The spokesman of the party said here on Tuesday that once again the Union Home Minister Amit Shah has announced to complete NRC plan by 2024- when the country would be ready for next general election. The spokesman said thus the religion-based agenda is for next election and not the solution to the immigrants’ problem. The spokesman said changing citizenship rules will not help the BJP electorally, as it demonstrated in recent West Bengal assembly by-elections. Earlier during the assembly election the Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had raked up the issue and now similar voices are being heard in on-going Jharkhand poll. The spokesman said the general refrain is that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are eating into the benefits due to legal Muslim residents of the state. There is no doubt that every country has right to protect its international boundaries from illegal immigrants. Assam has been facing enormous problem for decades and a strong anti-immigration movement was also launched in the state. The NRC thereafter was done on the instructions of the court. The spokesman said the issue has now being given communal colour.
The spokesman said BJP’s electoral motivation is absolutely clear as it takes the issue to the national level. The rhetoric of NRC deepens Hindu-Muslim polarisation, and helps consolidate the “Hindu vote” in regions with a substantial Muslim population, for instance West Bengal. The spokesman further said it is time to step back and look at Assam and learn lessons from there. The NRC process extracted huge costs. It caused great humanitarian distress; it divided Assamese society and the political subtext became communal in nature; it can also lead to a possible rift with Bangladesh since the discourse is centered around immigrants from there; and it has caused uncertainty since there is no clarity on what happens to those excluded. The spokesman said while citizens have the first right over India, replicating the NRC nationally is not a solution to illegal immigration.
