Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The Congress in Assam has dared the BJP and the AGP to show foreigners in the NRC and it (the Congress) will show ‘lakhs of Indians declared ineligible for inclusion in the citizenship register’.
In a joint press conference of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) and the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) at Rajiv Bhawan here on Wednesday, APCC president Ripun Bora said, “After the publication of the NRC, the BJP and the AGP have started talking cunningly to hush up their guilt. Why are the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and the State Chief Minister silent on the National Register of Citizens? After the publication of the complete draft NRC on June 30, 2018 Amit Shah went on record saying in the Parliament and outside it that over 41 lakh foreigners had been detected in Assam. He was also on record saying that the NRC would be prepared in all States of the country. However, after its publication the BJP isn’t ready to take the credit. In his recent visit to Guwahati, Amit Shah was on record saying that no foreigner will be allowed to stay in Assam. He, however, is favouring the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) taking December 31, 2014 as the cut-off date. This is contrary to the cut-off date of March 24, 1971 as stated in the Assam Accord. We’ll continue to oppose the CAB.”
On the allegation by the AGP and the BJP that the NRC has names of foreigners in it, Bora said: “If that is so, why didn’t they raise objections when complete draft NRC was published with 2.69 crore names in it? There were only 1.87 lakh objections against the names included in the draft NRC. We dare the BJP and the AGP to show names of foreigners in the NRC, and we’ll show them lakhs of genuine Indians declared ineligible for inclusion in the NRC. If there is any error in the NRC, the RGI, the Centre and State government are responsible for that. Even though the NRC was updated under the stewardship of the Supreme Court of India, the apex court has just given the framework. The NRC was actually updated by the State government by employing 55,000 of its officials.”
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