Congress did not have courage to identify illegal immigrants in Assam: BJP's Amit Shah
Amit Shah
'NRC is being conducted on the SC order. There are 40 lakh people (missing in the list) ... Whom do you want to save? You want to save illegal Bangaldesis,' the BJP President said
BJP President Amit Shah hit out at the Congress today, saying it had not had the courage to identify illegal immigrants living in Assam.
Shah was speaking in the Rajya Sabha.
"NRC is being conducted on the SC order. There are 40 lakh people (missing in the list) ... Whom do you want to save? You want to save illegal Bangaldesis," PTI quoted the the BJP chief as saying.
Shah added that the National Register of Citizens was similar to the Assam Accord, signed by Rajiv Gandhi and the leaders of the Assam Movement in 1985. The movement — to identify and deport illegal immigrants living in Assam — had been launched in 1979. It culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord.
"This was the Congress PM's initiative. He (Rajiv Gandhi) did not have the courage. We have courage and we are doing it," PTI quoted Shah as saying.
Assam published the second draft of its NRC on Monday. The first draft had been published on December 31 last year.
Some 40 lakh people — out of a total Assam population of 3.29 crore — now find themselves out of the NRC.
While the NRC is still not final, and they have recourse to legal options going all the way up to the Supreme Court, those 40 lakh Assam residents could end up losing their Assamese, and therefore Indian, citizenship.
Former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Mahanta has since the publication of the NRC called for the deportation of all illegal immigrants. Mahanta had risen to prominence as a leader of the AASU.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has on the other hand attacked the NRC, which was Supreme Court-mandated, as saying Indian citizens were being turned into refugees and that Bengal would shelter them.
The BJP has in turn said the illegal immigrants in Bengal should be identified next, and that their number runs into "crores".
The Rajya Sabha meanwhile was adjourned for the day after Shah's comments led to vociferous protests from the Congress and the TMC.