US OR THEM

The Chief Minister of West Ben gal,

Mamata B an erjee,h as rai ned contempt and abuse on the B JP-led central government for conducting the N RC exercise in the way that it has done. But her own government has done little in responding( confirming or denying) the citizenship queries sent by officials of the N RC in respect of those whose names are missing from list.

The rule is that those who migrated from West Bengal to Assam before 24 March, 1971, need to prove they are Indian citizens. If they lived in West Bengal, the administration there has to certify that they are citizens of India born in West Bengal but residing in Assam.

Nearly 115,000 queries were sent to the West Bengal government to establish the legal antecedents of Bengalis living in Assam. Banerjee's government has reportedly responded to less than 7,500 such queries.

MoS for Home Kiren Rijiju told the Rajya Sabha in November 2016 the number of Bangladeshis living illegally in India was 20 million. He did not specify the number of such people living in West Bengal. But the BJP has claimed that some 8 million Bangladeshis are living in West Bengal.

“The N RC is for protecting human rights,

the rights of Indians. The country can not run like this… You can not have people from everywhere. The Opposition should explain if it has any consideration for national security. How do you protect the country by encouraging and protecting illegal mi grants? The N RC is for security. It is our firm stand and we will implement it. Forus, it is top priority. There should not be any confusion on it,” BJP President Amit Shahs aid at a press conference in Delhi.

Shah also announced that he would be going to Ben gal to sen si ti se people there that the N RC was the right thing to do.

But the BJP’s interest in making capital out of the NRC is easy to understand: West Bengal represents a political challenge for the party which has made some inroads into it but has been unable to establish itself in rural Bengal.

West Bengals ends 42 MPs to the Lok S ab ha and the B JP’ se ye is firmly fixed on reporting a better showing from the state.

By invoking the NRC as a measure to safeguard the interests of non-Muslims in West Bengal, Shah is repeating the traditional BJP charge against Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress: Minority appeasement.