The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has kickstarted a campaign for the implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal similar to that of Assam to identify and deport illegal Bangladeshi immigrants residing in the state. According to a report in the Economic Times, the RSS and its various frontal organisations have started a statewide awareness campaign in border area districts in the state.
The RSS and its frontal organisations have started the pro-NRC campaign centring their focus on the districts close to the Bangladesh border. The campaign includes door-to-door campaignings to make people aware of the influx of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants and the risk they pose for the state’s demography and economy.
RSS West Bengal Jishnu Basu has stated that the organisation will take all the measures to convince the people of the necessity of NRC in the state. He has added that there is no other way than the NRC to save the state from the influx of Bangladeshi Muslims. The campaign will start from the nine districts that share a border with Bangladesh and eventually spread to all the districts in the state. The RSS has also formed a committee of lawyers who are working of filing petitions in the Kolkata High Court and if needed the Supreme Court attempting to bring legal intervention to implement NRC in the state.
The RSS has also reportedly created training programmes for villagers to educate them about arranging the necessary documents needed to clear the NRC process provided they are originally Indian citizens. Basu has also claimed that the RSS has all the legal documents and evidence necessary to back their claim of demography change in West Bengal. He has added that the reports of the last five or six census data show that the population growth in the border districts has shown a steep rise much higher than the scientific rate of population growth. The rate of population growth in these districts has been in double digits which is alarming.
Basu also reportedly pointed out that while several political parties including the TMC are opposed to the citizenship(amendment) bill 2016, that seeks to provide Indian citizenship to minority religion refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afganistan, where most of the refugees are Hindus, they are vehemently opposed to the implementation of NRC. We will not allow a single Hindu family to become a refugee again.
Kailash Vijayvargiya, BJP’s national general secretary, has also stated that the BJP is also organising small groups of workers to go to people in Mandal level and create awareness about the NRC. He added further that there are over two crores illegal Bangladeshis in West Bengal alone and it is a matter of national security. BJP’s state general secretary Sayantan Basu had stated recently that the party will engage 20,000 people across the 37 organisational districts for the awareness programme.
It is notable here that West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had been vehemently against the implementation of NRC in Assam. She had even threatened that if the central and state BJP governments are implementing NRC with political motives and there will be civil war and bloodbath in the country of the NRC is implemented. Two TMC leaders from Assam had quit the party after Banerjee’s statements over the issue.
It is notable here that Indian law enforcement agencies and even the Home Ministry have been expressing concerns about the porous border with Bangladesh several Indian states. Many terrorists with links to dreaded terror organisations have been known to have infiltrated into India through the Bangladesh border in West Bengal. Recently the arrested chief of terror outfit JMB, Mohammad Jahidul Islam alias Bomber Miyan, who was arrested for being the mastermind of the Mahabodhi temple explosives case, had revealed that he had infiltrated into India through the West Bengal border and had been actively engaged in recruiting new jihadis and planning attacks in Bengal and Assam.
