Govt hardens NRC stance
Rights of Assamese people above those of ‘infiltrators’, says Amit Shah No action can be taken yet based on draft, cautions Supreme Court
NEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the government hardened their stance on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on Tuesday, with the ruling party’s chief Amit Shah calling the 4 million people in Assam excluded from the final draft “infiltrators” and claiming credit for an exercise that, he said, the opposition Congress had been reluctant to carry out while in power. He also asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take a clear stand on the issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Shah’s comments came on a day attorney general KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court that the government wanted to collect and maintain a biometric record of all the excluded people because of concerns that they may migrate to other states.
The court said the draft list cannot be a basis for any action against people not in it. “What has been published is only a draft NRC and it being a draft, it cannot be a basis for action by any authority,” said justice Ranjan Gogoi.
Shah too emphasised that the list was a draft and that the people 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.
UPA lacked the courage to throw out illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. NRC will be implemented to the last full stop and comma AMIT SHAH,
BJP chief History will never pardon the ilk of ModiAmit Shah for distorting the entire process for political gains
RANDEEP SURJEWALA, Congress chief spokesperson What has been published is only a draft NRC and it being a draft, it cannot be a basis for action by any authority JUSTICE RANJAN GOGOI, SC Judge