On the day the final draft of the National Register of Citizens, which identified 40 lakh potentially illegal immigrants in Assam was published, the BJP Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh said that if the BJP is voted to power a similar National Register of Citizens will be published for Bengal. Extending support to the publication of draft, Ghosh said those politicians were shedding ‘crocodile tears’ as they are wary that their vote bank politics would come to an end.
BJP General Secretary in charge of West Bengal, Kailash Vijayvargiya reportedly extended support to the idea and said there should be a similar effort to ‘identify illegal migrants from Bangladesh in West Bengal’ and claimed that the number could run into crores. BJP supported the demand saying that the youth in Bengal is facing issues like unemployment and law and order because of illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
The TMC and Congress have been vocally opposing Assam government’s decision to expose illegal immigration in the state. Following the publication of the draft, the TMC’s MP Sougata Roy gave an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha, which was followed by an uproar by the party’s MPs, which subsequently led to an adjournment till 12 PM. One of its leaders also alleged that this decision would have “serious ramifications on the demography” of the states adjoining Assam.
Subsequently, in a press conference, TMC Chief Mamata Banerjee also plunged into the matter by claiming that people having Aadhaar cards and Passports too have not been included in the list. She further alleged that people have been excluded on the basis of their surnames and questioned whether the government was carrying out a forceful eviction.
She also claimed that people are being isolated via a game plan to throw out Bengali speakers and Biharis, and questioned as to where would these 40 lakh non included citizens go. She also alleged that this exercise was vote politics by the BJP.
The Congress party in Assam too has expressed its opposition by claiming that 40 lakh exclusions are too high and surprising. It thus alleged that the BJP had a political motive behind the NRC. Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge too has termed the exclusion to be wrong.
