Caravan News
NEW DELHI – While speaking at the Mega rally on Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there has been no discussion on a National Register of Citizens (NRC) since the time his government was first elected in 2014. His statement contradicts with the public statements made by senior ministers and party leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP working president J P Nadda about a pan-India exercise.
Indian Express exposed the lie of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in its article entitled “Reality check: Before PM Modi’s distancing from pan-India NRC, there was Amit Shah’s underlining”
The report noted, BJP’s 2019 Lok Sabha elections manifesto, under the headline, ‘Combating Infiltration’, promised NRC in “other parts of the country in a phased manner”.
Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also signalled a climb-down saying “As far as NRC is concerned, it is limited to Assam. There is no plan of NRC in any other part of the country. You are talking about an unborn baby.”
While addressing a poll rally in Darjeeling on April 11, Shah had said the BJP will throw out every infiltrator but every Hindu and Buddhist refugee will be meticulously identified and given Indian citizenship.
Addressing another poll rally in West Bengal on May 1, Shah said CAB would be followed by NRC. He had said “First we will pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and ensure that all the refugees from the neighbouring nations get Indian citizenship. After that, NRC will be made and we will detect and deport every infiltrator from our motherland.”
Shah is seen in a YouTube video uploaded on BJP’s official website on April 23, saying: “First the CAB will come. All refugees will get citizenship. Then NRC will come. This is why refugees should not worry, but infiltrators should. Understand the chronology — CAB will come and then NRC. NRC is not just for Bengal, it’s for the entire country.”
On September 8, 2018, while addressing the BJP National Executive meeting at Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi, Shah had said: “Our stand on NRC is very clear, every infiltrator will be identified and will be thrown out of India”.
Later after becoming the Home Minister, Shah talked about NRC several times.
Shah categorically had said that NRC would be brought across the country during the debate on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha on December 9. He had said, “We don’t need to set a background for the NRC. We will bring the NRC across the country. Not a single infiltrator will be spared.”
On November 21 while replying to a question during the debate in Rajya Sabha, Shah said: “The process of National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be carried out across the country. No one, irrespective of their religion, should be worried. It is just a process to get everyone under the NRC.”
Shah repeatedly talked about a pan-India NRC at his rallies in the run-up to the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections in October.
Shah while addressing a rally in West Singhbhum on December 2, had said: “…the Congress says don’t implement NRC, don’t send infiltrators. We will implement NRC in the entire country and send each and every infiltrator outside the country by the 2024 elections.”
Rajnath Singh while addressing an election rally in Jharkhand On December 14, said a nationwide NRC was “inevitable”, and nothing could deter the government from implementing it.
Even as protests spread across the country, Nadda on December 19, asserted The Citizenship (Amendment) Act will be implemented, so will be NRC.”
Indian Express also pointed out “President Ram Nath Kovind, in his first address to MPs after the 17th Lok Sabha was constituted on June 20, had said: “Illegal infiltrators pose a major threat to our internal security. This is leading to social imbalance in many parts of the country, as well as putting huge pressure on limited livelihood opportunities. My government has decided to implement the process of National Register of Citizens on priority basis in areas affected by infiltration. Security along the border will be further strengthened to prevent infiltration.” The presidential address is considered to be the policy declaration of the government.”