The union home minister says all citizens of India irrespective of religion will figure in it; WB chief minister says she will never allow it in the state
Amit Shah was speaking in the Rajya Sabha. Pic /PTI
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process will be carried out across the country, and made it clear there would be no discrimination on the basis of religion. Even as Shah made a countrywide pitch for the NRC process, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee assured people she will never allow such a citizen register in the state.
Shah told the Rajya Sabha that all citizens of India irrespective of religion will figure in the NRC list. There is no provision in the NRC that people belonging to other religions will not be included in the register, he added. He said the Centre accepts that refugees — Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis — who left Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious atrocities should get Indian citizenship.
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"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," he said replying to a supplementary during Question Hour. "People from all religions who are Indian citizens will be included. There is no question of any discrimination on the basis of religion. NRC is a different process and the Citizenship Amendment Bill is different," Shah said. Banerjee said the NRC in Assam was part of the Assam Accord signed during the tenure of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and that the exercise can never be implemented across the country.
"There are few people who are trying to create disturbances in West Bengal in the name of implementation of the NRC. I want to make it very clear, we will never allow NRC in Bengal". "No one can take away your citizenship and turn you into a refugee. There can be no division on the basis of religion," Banerjee said while addressing a public meeting in Sagardighi in Murshidabad district.
"Before talking about implementing the NRC in West Bengal, the BJP should answer why 14 lakhs Hindus and Bengalis were omitted from the final NRC list in Assam," she said.
'Govt must disclose details about electoral bonds'
The Congress demanded on Wednesday that the government must disclose all details about electoral bonds before parliament, alleging that the scheme resulted in money laundering and destroyed transparency. Describing electoral bonds as a "political bribery scheme", the opposition party said it was a scam that tarnished the image of the Indian democracy.
"What we are talking about today leads straight to the PM's office. The BJP govt is running 90 per cent of the business in this country with a few industrialists," senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said.
He alleged that the scheme of electoral bonds resulted in money laundering and destroyed transparency in the funding of political parties.
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