Indian Home Minister and BJP President Amit Shah on Tuesday said the government would extend the National Register of Citizens across the country and all infiltrators would be thrown out of India but before that the Citizenship (amendment) Bill will be passed to give Indian citizenship to all Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist refugees.
Addressing a seminar at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on the controversial NRC, which has hitherto been restricted to Assam, Shah accused West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress of misleading the people about the citizenship roll. "People of Bengal are being misled about the NRC... I assure all Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain refugees they won't have to leave the country, they will get Indian citizenship and enjoy all the rights of an Indian national," he said.
He, however, said all infiltrators will be thrown out of the country. Shah said the NRC would happen "no matter how much Trinamool Congress opposes it and the BJP will get it done". She accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of being keen on keeping “infiltrators” to expand her voter base. "Didi (Mamata) used to oppose these same people when they voted for communists. Now that they are voting for her, she wants to keep them," he said.
"Didi is saying she won't let NRC happen, I want to promise you we won't let a single infiltrator stay. Not one refugee will have to go, not one infiltrator will be able to stay, this is the BJP's promise," said the BJP chief. Shah said Trinamool Congress has blocked Citizenship (Amendment) Bill but the BJP-led government at the Centre would ensure it is passed before implementing NRC in Bengal.
The BJP chief also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and said it will facilitate complete integration of the state into India. Shah said the BJP had just two parliamentary seats in 2014 but today it has 18 seats in West Bengal. “We have received 40% of the votes. Almost 2.5 crore Bengalis have voted for us,” said the Home Minister.
On the occasion, senior Trinamool Congress legislator and former Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta joined the BJP in the presence of Shah. Dutta, who was at loggerheads with the Trinamool leadership, resigned from his post as Mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation in July this year.
