RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, amid the political uproar over the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), has come out in support of it and asserted that "India is not a Dharamshala (guest house)".
He felt that the Assam NRC issue has been needlessly hyped. "Those who are outsiders should get their nationality proved or else leave the country to the place from where they have arrived", Singh said. As the vociferous protest by the opposition continues, the CM questioned the ground of objections raised against the NRC when it was initiated by the Congress-led Centre.
In a hard-hitting statement, the longest-serving BJP chief minister said, "Should we consider our nation as dharamshala where the foreigners keep infiltrating and encroaching. The liberty to any outsider who is coming here and start living should not be allowed. They should be turned away. In Assam the efforts were aimed to identify such persons only. Those (40 lakhs) excluded from the NRC have the option to either prove their nationality or else leave the county".
Singh stated that the exercise on NRC began during the Congress regime when a committee was constituted at the behest of the Supreme Court. "Why should the outsiders be entitled to have access and utilise the resources of the country", Singh said and further added that the NRC is the consequence of the eight long years of demonstration by Assamese youths.
On Friday the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the Rajya Sabha reiterated that the NRC published on July 30 was a draft and not final, and adequate opportunity would be provided to all to file objections and claims under the legal norms.