Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Govt hardens NRC stance Citizens’ exclusion could lead to civil war in country, warns Mamata

- CONTINUED ON P 6 Saubhadra Chatterji saubhadra.chatterji@hindustant­imes.com

ple who were not in it would be given an opportunit­y to appeal. The BJP chief spoke in Parliament and at a press conference at the BJP headquarte­rs after his speech was disrupted.

Shah said the NRC was the “soul of the Assam accord”, a pact signed in 1985 by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and organisati­ons campaignin­g for the identifica­tion and deportatio­n of illegal immigrants from the states. Shah claimed the accord had remained unimplemen­ted because the Congress lacked the courage to enforce it. NEW DELHI: Delivering a stern warning that the National Register of Citizens (NRC), whose final draft has excluded four million people of Assam, may “lead to civil war”, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday called for the Narendra Modi government’s ouster after the 2019 national elections.

Citing the draft NRC, a spate of mob lynchings and alleged crimes against Dalits and minorities, she demanded a change of power. “That is why the country needs a change. And it must change in 2019,” she said at a Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) conclave in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Later, she met home minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the NRC issue. She asked Singh to amend the NRC Bill or introduce a new one. She informed Singh that informatio­n was being spread that NRC will also be implemente­d in Bengal.

 ?? REUTERS FILE ?? Residents wait outside the NRC centre to get their documents verified in Assam’s Morigaon district.
Bangladesh calls exclusion from draft NRC India’s “local, internal political matter” with “ethnic undertones”
REUTERS FILE Residents wait outside the NRC centre to get their documents verified in Assam’s Morigaon district. Bangladesh calls exclusion from draft NRC India’s “local, internal political matter” with “ethnic undertones”
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