Author: Akhilesh Singh
Publication: The Times of India
Date:  December 20, 2019
URL:      https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/bjp-unfazed-says-will-implement-caa-nrc/articleshow/72893970.cms

Unfazed by the refusal of some state governments to implement a nationwide National Register for Citizens (NRC), BJP is standing its ground for a registry of all citizens.

On a day when the government clarified that NRC was not part of CAA, BJP’s working president J P Nadda, after meeting a delegation of refugees from Afghanistan at the party headquarters here, reiterated that both the new citizenship law and the NRC would be implemented across the country.

FAQs released by the government on Thursday to counter propaganda about changes in the CAA leaves room open for implementation of NRC about which the government merely said “it is yet to be decided”. Several states have refused to implement the NRC if it is brought in future. JD(U) chief and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and BJD boss and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, whose parties had supported the CAB in Parliament, have said no to NRC.

However, Nadda made it amply clear that there was no going back on NRC. “India is marching ahead under PM Narendra Modi and will continue to do so. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act will be implemented, so will the NRC in future,” he said, leaving no room for confusion about the party’s position on NRC.

Nadda said BJP’s rivals were protesting against the CAA for vote bank politics while ignoring the plight of minorities of three neighbouring countries living in India. “Those who are opposing the citizenship law should meet them first,” Nadda said after meeting Sikh refugees from Afghanistan, who will become Indian citizens as per the new citizenship law.

BJP’s working president added: “These people have been living in India for 28-30 years but can’t admit their children in schools or buy a house as they do not have citizenship. Our rivals cannot see anything beyond vote bank politics.”

Asked about Congress, TMC, Left and other parties’ opposition to the bill, Nadda quoted home minister Amit Shah’s statement in Parliament that opposition parties were speaking the same language as Pakistan on the issue.

Shah has asserted several times that NRC, which has been implemented in Assam as per the Supreme Court’s order, will be done nationally.

On Thursday, a delegation of Sikhs thanked BJP for bringing changes in the citizenship law, which will grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan if they arrived in India by December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution.

Nadda said these Sikhs had left Afghanistan nearly three decades ago and arrived in India to protect their faith. “Documentation process to grant them citizenship will be done quickly so that they can join the mainstream,” he said.