‘Centre had tried to stall NRC’
Party alleges attorney general had used fear of violence to delay implementation in 2017, was reprimanded by SC
: The Congress on Sunday alleged that the Narendra Modi government had itself tried to stall the process of updating the Assam’s National Register of Citizens by appealing to the Supreme Court that such a move could lead to law and order issues.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the Attorney General of India had used the fear of violence to delay the implementation of the NRC in the Supreme Court in 2017, for which the court had reprimanded him.
“The Shah of lies and the Shahenshah of Jumlas tried their best to stall the NRC. I will tell you how they hatched a conspiracy to stop, delay and disrupt the NRC (update) process,” said Khera.
This statement from the Congress came a day after the party staked ownership of the NRC exercise by calling it “a baby of the Congress party,” born as a consequence of the Assam Accord signed by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.
Accusing BJP president Amit Shah of speaking lies in Parliament about the government’s show of courage in implementing the NRC, Khera said the date — November 30, 2017 — will be remembered in history for it was “on this day that the Supreme Court of India came down heavily on the Modi government for its excuses to delay the NRC”.
The court, Khera said, had additionally criticised the government over the AG’s statement that part publication of the draft could result in a law and order situation as a large segment of people would understand that their name have been excluded.
“We do not see how the aforesaid situation can even remotely arise as we have already indicated in the earlier part of the present order that claims of 47 lakh people (regarding whom the doubt pertained to parental linkage) and 29 lakh people (married women who had submitted Gram Panchayat Secretary Certificates) are still pending and would be subject to verification and covered by publication of another draft at a subsequent point of time,” Khera said quoting the SC.
He said it was shocking that the Centre’s highest legal officer made this submission in the SC.
“We demand that the Modi government apologise to the people of Assam. We also demand to know what is the stand of this government, which on the one hand seeks to give citizenship rights through the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill to all those who migrated to India before 31 December, 2014 and on the other hand is playing politics with NRC,” Khera said, demanding the resignation of chief minister Sarbanand Sonowal who, he said, “had no right to be the CM”.