No Indian citizen will be left out of NRC: Prime Minister
SILCHAR/GUWAHATI: Kicking off BJP’s campaign for the coming 2019 elections in Bengali-dominated Silchar in Assam’s Barak valley on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, would be passed in Parliament soon.
The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians) from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India up to December 2014 — after six years of residence in India instead of 12 years.
“The bill is not in favour of anyone. It is a penance for injustice (Partition) done in the past. I have high hopes the bill will be passed in Parliament soon,” the Prime Minister said.
The PM’s decision to choose Silchar to make the announcement is being seen as a political tactic to woo Bengali-speaking voters, including Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh. The Barak valley has two Lok Sabha seats — Karimganj and Silchar. While the Brahmaputra valley, comprising majority Assamese-speaking people, does not want the bill, Bengali-speaking Barak valley is in favour of the proposed legislation.
Modi also stoked emotions by talking about the ongoing National Register of Citizens (NRC) update exercise. “No Indian citizen will be left out of the final NRC. I understand that people are facing a lot of problems in the process of NRC. However, in response to the appeal of the government, the Supreme Court has agreed to accept a number of documents, including relief eligibility and camp certificates, as valid documents in support of claims for Indian citizenship. This will help ease the problems being faced by the persons concerned,” said the PM.
Modi, in an apparent bid to soothe frayed nerves, added the BJP government was working for the conservation of the culture, heritage, and language of Assam. The PM said the Centre has constituted a committee to properly implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord for this purpose.
The state plunged into a deep crisis after Modi’s announcement that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, would be passed. On Friday, as the Barak valley rejoiced, all groups in the Brahmaputra valley, including All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) and the pro-talks Ulfa faction, rejected the bill and announced a stronger protest from Saturday.
“This is in complete violation of the Assam Accord where the cutoff date for detecting an illegal migrant is March 24, 1971, and not December 2014, as stated in the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. Assam is not a dustbin to dump illegal Bangladeshis. We will never accept this bill,” said Aasu adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya. He added, “This has been established that BJP is least bothered about Assam and has its focus only on vote banks. We are meeting 30 other indigenous bodies tomorrow to decide our course of action.”
The Ulfa leadership, which is in talks with the Centre, has decided to call a meeting to discuss the next step, said Anup Chetia, a leader of the outfit. Ulfa had earlier threatened to withdraw from the peace process if the bill is passed.
On Thursday, there were fresh protests in the Brahmaputra valley after a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) adopted the draft report on the controversial bill and is scheduled to place its report in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
