Clear air on citizenship before Bengal elections: Forum - The Centre should come clean on where it stands on the NRC, CAA and NPR

The Joint Forum Against NRC stressed this was more important for Bengal’s people than talks on Trinamul turncoats joining the BJP

Leaders of the Joint Forum Against NRC address the media in Calcutta. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta:  Bishwarup Dutta

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Subhajoy Roy   |   TT   |   Calcutta   |    19.12.20  :  The Centre should come clean on where it stands on the NRC, CAA and NPR before Bengal elections, a platform of organisations opposed to the new citizenship matrix said on Friday while fielding questions for Union home minister Amit Shah, who reached Calcutta late in the night.    

The Joint Forum Against NRC stressed this was more important for Bengal’s people than talks on Trinamul turncoats joining the BJP.

“We would like to talk on issues that impact people much more than a few leaders switching parties...The Centre has to spell out clearly if it wants a nationwide National Register for Citizens (NRC) or not. They have to come clear on this before Bengal elections. If they do not, we will start a movement that forces them to clear their stand,” Bose said.

Bengal being a bordering state and home to hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Bangladesh, clarity on the Centre’s views on the citizenship matrix assumes urgency.

Shah was supposed to visit Thakurnagar, home to many from the Matua community — lower-caste Hindus from Bangladesh, many of whom want the new citizenship laws here.

But Thakurnagar was dropped from Shah’s itinerary. Instead, he will now head to Midnapore, Trinamul turncoat Suvendu Adhikari’s turf.

Bose said they had all heard BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya say that citizenship will be given to all refugees by February. “But Vijayvargiya is not a minister...Shah must clarify whether the home ministry intends to do the same or whether Vijayvargiya is bluffing,” Bose said.

Forum members cited examples of different voices from the BJP on the citizenship matrix to stress why clear answers from Shah were vital.

For instance, in December 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stated there had been no discussion on “the word NRC” during his five-year-old tenure, ignoring home minister Amit Shah’s repeated claims that the citizenship amendment would be followed by a countrywide NRC update to identify and expel “ghuspetiyas (infiltrators)”.

Bose said Shah must spell out the Centre’s stand on the BJP-led Assam government about a fresh NRC. “After inconveniencing so many people for so many years, the Assam BJP is now saying that if they come to power again they will prepare a fresh NRC. Shah should make it clear whether the home ministry shares the same view,” he added.

Pratip Nag, another member, said the forum wanted all amendments to the citizenship act passed in 1955 to be repealed. “We want all amendments to be repealed. The 1955 Act was the most inclusive and most secular. It said whoever was born in India would become a citizen, irrespective of whether a person’s parents were born in India or not,” said Nag.