Citizenship bill will precede NRC: Amit Shah

The government will introduce and pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) before compiling a National Registry of Citizens (NRC), home minister Amit Shah said in Kolkata, dwelling on an issue that threatens to become the central one in the electoral battle between the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Shah’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the next assembly elections in 2021.

Shah, in the city in connection with Durga Puja celebrations, said, “CAB will precede NRC; so refugees need not worry.” CAB essentially guarantees citizenship to all non-Muslim refugees into India from neighbouring countries. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government tried to pass the bill in its first term but could not.

Addressing his first meeting in West Bengal since the Lok Sabha elections, Shah said, “People are being harassed in the name of NRC. I have come here to clear the confusion. Mamata Banerjee’s contention that Hindu refugees would be driven out is absolutely false. No refuge will have to leave India.”

“No infiltrator would be able to live in India and no refugee will have to leave India,” he reiterated, asking party workers to reach out to every refugee family and explain the party’s stand to them.

“I today want to assure Hindu,Sikh, Jain, Buddhist and Christian refugees, you will not be forced to leave India by the Centre. Don’t believe rumours,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.

The Union home minister’s remarks come at a time when panic over the citizenship screening exercise has gripped large parts of West Bengal, especially the districts bordering Bangladesh. Serpentine queues were seen outside block development and municipality offices in several districts of the state last week with thousands scampering to get documents such as ration cards, voter ID cards and those with Aadhaar numbers corrected or have new documents issued.

Various BJP leaders, including Shah, have said the exercise could be carried out across India.

Over the past two weeks, a dozen deaths in the state, including suicides and deaths while standing in queues, have been attributed to panic over NRC by the family members of the deceased as also the TMC, the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M). Chief minister Banerjee has sworn to not allow NRC in the state.

Shah’s speech drew sharp reactions from the TMC and the Left. Hitting back at him, Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra alleged that the Union home minister has spread panic in the middle of the festive season in the state.

“I am myself in a state of panic. Which document would I furnish? I hail from Jessore, which was East Pakistan and has now become part of Bangladesh. So, I shall also be thrown out. I can be put in jail. Jails are being built in Assam and jails will also be built here,” Mitra said.

A Supreme Court mandated NRC was carried out in Assam and the final registry left out 1.9 million people in the state.

Questioning the very basis of the proposed CAB, Mitra asked, “Will the Constitution allow including some and excluding others on the basis of religion?”

Without mentioning Shah or his speech, Banerjee said during the inauguration of a community Durga Puja: “Please come to Bengal to enjoy the warmth of Durga Puja. But please don’t spread divisiveness.”

“As many as 19 persons have committed suicide due to panic over NRC. We have said ‘no’ to NRC. Amit Shah has become the symbol of NRC,” remarked CPI(M) politburo member Md Salim.

In his address, Shah also vowed that the TMC government will be dislodged in the next assembly elections.

“You have expressed your wish for a change by giving us 18 seats. This will now be realised under Modi’s leadership. We will form the government [in Bengal] with absolute majority,” said Shah. The BJP won 18 of the states 42 seats in the recent Lok Sabha elections, up from 2 in 2014.