Assam NRC unites Oppn in Bengal
DAY AFTER A proposal to send an allparty resolution to the Centre demanding the list’s withdrawal received support of Cong, Left MLAs
Bitter rivals ruling Trinamool Congress, Left Front and Congress legislators united in West Bengal assembly on Tuesday to condemn the list prepared by the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam that has left out more than 4 million people, mostly Bengalis.
A proposal submitted by state Parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee to send an allparty resolution to the Centre condemning the list and demanding its immediate withdrawal received overwhelming support from all Congress and Left Front legislators present in the House.
Chatterjee also initiated a discussion condemning the NCR, where MLAs of Congress, TMC and Left Front participated. Two of the three BJP MLAs who were present did not participate.
Despite the unity, leader of Left Front parties Sujan Chakrabarty pointed out that the Centre sent the West Bengal government for verification documents for 1,14,971 individuals, who hail from Bengal but were currently live in Assam. However, the West Bengal government verified only 7,430 documents, Chakraborty alleged, pointing out that it was the duty of the state government to respond to all inquiries.
State PWD minister Arup Biswas argued that it was virtually impossible for the state government to check each of the documents as it had other work to do.
Chatterjee said several intellectuals were worried. “Many intellectuals have expressed willingness to go to Assam and express their solidarity with those left out,” the minister said.
An eight-member TMC delegation is supposed to visit Assam on August 2-3. The team will comprise MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, Firhad
KOLKATA/GUWAHATI:
Hakim and MLA Mahua Moitra.
“We will go to Silchar, Guwahati and Nagaon. We will try to interact with people whose names have not been included,” said a member of the delegation who did not wish to be named.
Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi Tuesday termed the final draft of the NRC as “defective” and claimed that most of the over 40 lakh people excluded in the list are “Indian citizens”.
The Congress in Assam has never won polls on the votes of Bangladeshi people, Gogoi said, asserting both he and the present chief minister have won elections held on the basis of the same voters’ list. The senior Congress leader admitted that illegal Bangladeshi people are residing in Assam, but said their number is much less than the 40 lakh figure mentioned in the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“This is not a full proof NRC. It has leakages. It is defective. Most of these 40 lakh people are Indian citizens,” he said a day after release of the document that excluded over 40 lakh applicants.
“The government should provide legal aid to these excluded people. From the Congress party, we are going to help them in every possible way. It is not correct to consider these people as foreigners,” Gogoi said.
He said many people declared as foreigners by the Supreme Court have been included while names of some people living in detention camps for foreigners featured in the list. “If those 40 lakh people are not to be treated as foreigners, then where are the foreigners? And if the foreigners are excluded, then why don’t you take action? If the NRC does not indicate anything, then is it not a waste of resources?” he asked.
BJP president Amit Shah hit back at the Opposition, saying his party was the only one that dared to take a firm stance against illegal immigration. He said migrants from Bangladesh had no place in India.
On Monday, the BJP’s West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh had said his party would publish a National Register of Citizens (NRC), along the lines of the one in Assam, in West Bengal if they were voted to power in the state.