Addressing a rally for upcoming Delhi Election at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there had been no discussions regarding the nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) by BJP and it’s members since 2014. He said that the NRC was executed in Assam to follow the instructions given by the Supreme Court. Everything from NRC to CAA and etcetera is in the wishlist of Congress Leaders, which is just getting fulfilled by BJP.
Claims and counterclaims
On November 20, 2019, in Lok Sabha session MP Swapan Dasgupta raised a question to which Home Minister Amit Shah replied that the process of NRC would be carried out nationwide. He said that a gazette notification was made on September 7, 2015, in the case of Assam, which would apply to the rest of India as well. While our Prime Minister’s remarks about “nationwide NRC” is totally different as he denies the fact that his party members didn’t even discuss NRC statement, therefore repudiating what the Home Minister has been saying on the issue and what PM believes on the subject.
A clear expression of “nationwide NRC” also finds a mention in the BJP’s 2019 election, the manifesto says, “There has been a huge change in the cultural and linguistic identity of some areas due to illegal immigration, resulting in an adverse impact on local people’s livelihood and employment. We will expeditiously complete the National Register of Citizens process in these areas on priority. In the future, we will implement the NRC in a phased manner in other parts of the country,” and now PM Modi denies from the fact that they haven’t discussed it since the party came into power.
The biggest and essential contradiction was when PM Modi denied the existence of detention centers in India, which was quite shocking for the audience if they have read all about CAA, NRC, in Assam in the last few days of protests. By answering a question raised by Md. Nadimul Haque, in the Rajya Sabha on December 11, 2019, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, stated that on January 9, 2019, the Central government had circulated a document named as Model Detention/Holding Centre Manual to all State and Union Territories. He also explained in another answer in the House that, as on November 22, 2019, Assam already had six fully functioning detention centers, with 988 immigrants lodged in them.
Mr. Rai also said that “detention centers are set up by State Governments/ Union Territory Administration (UTs) as per the requirement to detain illegal migrants or convicted foreigners pending deportation to their native country. Instructions have been issued to all State Governments/UTs from time to time for setting up the detention centers, and [States/UTs] will not require any specific approval from the [MHA] for setting up of such detention centers”. He also said that the government had approved a detention center at Goalpara in Assam at a budget of ₹46.5 crore.
So now, the question is whom to believe? the intellectual MOTA BHAI or the people made God Avatar Narendra Damodar Das Modi and why the need for such an Act when the nation itself is in the phase of economic crisis? Why now this Act when there are a lot of other things to work upon? If there was a high need for CAA and NRC, then why these contradictory statements? Aren’t they talking to each other, or there is some conflict going within the BJP?
While pointing to opposition among a section of the political class of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, Mr. Modi stated, that the Congress who is now opposing citizenship Act, back in 2004 had supported a move to deprive the rights of women of Jammu and Kashmir if they married someone outside the State. His reference was perhaps to the Jammu and Kashmir Permanent Residents (Disqualification) Bill, 2004. This controversial issue was settled upon by the J&K High Court in 2002 in State and others Dr. Susheela Sawhney. In that judgment, the court said that “a daughter of a permanent resident marrying a non-permanent resident will not lose the status of a permanent resident of the state of Jammu and Kashmir”.
The Peoples Democratic Party, which was in an alliance government with the Congress in 2004, brought the said Bill to overthrow the decision. The Bill passed with 47-34 in the Lower House in the then State of J&K. However, partly due to resistance by the Congress, it lapsed in the Upper House. Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed, Congress chief for J&K, was reported to have stated that– thousands of students are studying across the nation, and some are married there. If enacted this law, it will create difficulties for them and legally and morally, the Congress will not be part of any anti-women Bill.
