Accusing the opposition of pursuing "divide and rule politics" and stoking violence over the amended citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted on Sunday that the legislation and the NRC have nothing to do with Indian Muslims as he sought to assuage their concerns amid widespread protests.
On Sunday, in Delhi PM Modi said “Has anything happened with the NRC yet? Lies are being spread”. “After my government came to power, from 2014 to now, let me tell the 130 crore citizens of this country, nowhere has the NRC word been discussed, been talked about. Only when the Supreme Court said, then we had to do it for Assam. What are they talking about? Spreading lies.”
But this contradicts Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also the president of the BJP, has spent the last year promising over and over that India will carry out an all India NRC, going so far as to make it one of the central promises of the electoral campaign ahead of Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.
On many ocassions, whether it be election rallies or in Parliament, Amit Shah has said that NRC will be carried out across the country. On May 1, addressing another poll rally in West Bengal, Shah said CAB would be followed by NRC. “First we will pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and ensure that all the refugees from the neighbouring nations get Indian citizenship. After that, NRC will be made and we will detect and deport every infiltrator from our motherland,” he said.
In the debate in Rajya Sabha two days later, he was silent on NRC. However, while replying to a question in Rajya Sabha on November 21, Shah said: “The process of National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be carried out across the country. No one, irrespective of their religion, should be worried. It is just a process to get everyone under the NRC.”
PM Modi even contradicted President Ram Nath Kovind who on June 20, while addressing MPs after the 17th Lok Sabha was constituted, had said “Illegal infiltrators pose a major threat to our internal security. This is leading to social imbalance in many parts of the country, as well as putting huge pressure on limited livelihood opportunities. My government has decided to implement the process of National Register of Citizens on priority basis in areas affected by infiltration. Security along the border will be further strengthened to prevent infiltration.”
Clearly on a back foot, the prime minister not only sought to distance his government from the NRC, but also tried to put the blame on the previous Congress government. He said that lies were being spread about the NRC and it was the previous Congress governments which had mooted the controversial exercise.
But the saffron party can't runaway from NRC now, BJP in its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections also promised NRC in “other parts of the country in a phased manner”. Under the headline, ‘Combating Infiltration’, the manifesto said the party would complete the process of NRC in areas where illegal migration has affected people’s livelihood and employment.
It's hard to tell what will happen next, but it is clear that BJP is on a back foot after CAA and NRC protests.
