CITIZENSHIP BILL WILL PRECEDE NRC: SHAH

KOLKATA: The government will introduce and pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) before compiling a National Registry of Citizens (NRC), home minister Amit Shah said in Kolkata, dwelling on an issue that threatens to become the central one in the electoral battle between the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Shah’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the next assembly elections in 2021.

Shah, in the city in connection with Durga Puja celebrations, said, “CAB will precede NRC; so refugees need not worry.” CAB essentially guarantees citizenship to all non-muslim refugees into India from neighbouring countries.

The Bjp-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government tried to pass the bill in its first term but could not.

Addressing his first meeting in West Bengal since the Lok Sabha elections, Shah said, “People are being harassed in the name of NRC. I have come here to clear the confusion. Mamata Banerjee’s contention that Hindu refugees would be driven out is absolutely false. No refuge will have to leave India.”

“No infiltrator would be able to live in India and no refugee will have to leave India,” he reiterated, asking party workers to reach out to every refugee family and explain the party’s stand to them.

“I today want to assure Hindu,sikh, Jain, Buddhist and Christian refugees, you will not be forced to leave India by the Centre. Don’t believe rumours,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.