NEW DELHI: Congress-ruled states and NDA ally JD(U) in Bihar expressed strong reservations over Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement in Parliament that a citizen’s register on the lines of the NRC exercise in Assam will be implemented throughout the country.
While Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan Congress leaders said the party high command would take a decision which will be followed in Congress-governed states, senior JD-U leader KC Tyagi told newspersons that “NRC is a sensitive matter. It was implemented in Assam after clearance from the Supreme Court. Our party is clear that there is no need for NRC in Bihar or any other state.”
Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) has been opposed to many of the issues piloted by the BJP in the past, including the Triple Talaq Bill and abrogation of Article 370 governing J&K.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee clearly said she would not allow the NRC process in her state.
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“There are a few people who are trying to create disturbance in the state in the name of NRC. I want to make it very clear that I will never allow NRC in Bengal as long as I am in power in the state,” she said at Sagardighi in Murshidabad, adding “The BJP should explain why 14 lakh Hindus and Bengalis were omitted from the final NRC list in Assam.”
Chhattisgarh Congress leader Sailesh Nitin Trivedi said, “It’s a sensitive issue and some might pitch it as a national one. But there has to be consensus within the party here and in Delhi.”
Vice-President of MP Congress Bhupendra Gupta, however, wondered why there was so much haste to make it a national exercise.
“Is it intended to target some particular group? He said, “Shah should first tell us why his own senior BJP leader in Assam, Himanta Biswa Sharma is unhappy with the final NRC list.”