Shah targets Oppn as Mughalsarai renamed
Shah charges Oppn with vote bank politics on Assam’s NRC
MUGHALSARAI: Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah on Sunday attacked the Congress again over Assam’s National Register for Citizens (NRC) and dared it to clear its stand on the OBC bill, saying that would expose whether the party was really for the backward communities.
The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, commonly known as OBC bill, was passed in the Lok Sabha on August 2 and will now go to the Rajya Sabha.
The proposed legislation seeks to grant the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) constitutional status on a par with National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Shah, who attended a function over the renaming of the Mughalsarai Junction to the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction, charged the Opposition with vote bank politics on the issue of Assam’s NRC. “Complying with orders of the Supreme Court, we have brought the NRC. Mamata Banerjee says NRC should not be there. Congress says there is no need for it. For the last four days, I am asking Rahul baba (Congress president Rahul Gandhi) whether NRC should be there or not. Rahul ji is not responding,” he said.
“Do the Congress, the SP (Samajwadi Party) and the BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) want Bangladeshi intruders to stay in the country? I know the people of UP don’t want the Bangladesh infiltrators here. Every Bangladeshi infiltrator should be thrown out of the country,” he said.
“The Modi government has got the OBC bill passed in the Lok Sabha. This will go to the Rajya Sabha. Will (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi clear his stand before the country whether his party will help in the passage of the bill in the Rajya Sabha or not? This will make it clear whether the Congress was really for the welfare of the backward classes,” Shah said.
The BJP chief said that an alliance of the opposition parties will have no impact on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“The opposition parties are creating a misconception. What will happen if the SP and the BSP come together? If Bua (BSP chief Mayawati)-Babua (SP chief Akhilesh Yadav) come together, what will happen in UP? Even if the Congress joins hand with the SP and the BSP, there will be no impact. The BJP will win 74 seats in UP. In the plains of the Ganga and the Yamuna, the BJP’s saffron will wave (hold sway) in 2019,” he said. “I want to make it clear, that like 2014, the way to New Delhi will go through UP in 2019 too,” he said.
Shah, railway minister Piyush Goyal and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath formally unveiled the renamed station’s plaque, giving the over-a-century-old Mughalsarai Junction a new identity.Shah termed the moment as “historic”.
Piyush Goyal said: “Renaming of the (Mughalsarai) junction is a matter of pride. Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya is a ‘sapoot’ (son) of railways as his father and maternal uncle worked for the railways.” “This name will be a source of inspiration for all,” Adityanath said. The state government had issued a notification to rename Mughalsarai Junction on June 4 and sent a copy to the Railway Board and other concerned departments.
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh’s founder member, was found dead near the station under mysterious circumstances in February 1968.