Violent clashes with police rocked Uttar Pradesh from Gorakhpur to Bulandshahr on Friday while thousands rallied in the national capital with the tricolour and 'Save Constitution' banners as protests raged across states against the amended citizenship law and the proposed NRC, prompting the government to indicate it was ready to accept suggestions.
While the people have hit to streets to protest against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), the question remains, is CAA linked to NRC?
The government has insisted that the CAA and NRC are completely separate. While speaking at an event organised by AajTak, on December 17 the Union Minister of Law Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that "NRC hasn't been finalised yet. There is no question of joining CAA with NRC as the draft is yet to be completed." He also said that the Act does not take away the citizenship of an Indian national of any religion.
An atmosphere of unrest has gripped the whole of India within 10 days of the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The possibility of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise being undertaken at a national level has only compounded the confusion and fear. But BJP and its supporters have asserted that the CAA has nothing to do with the NRC and that Indian citizens will not be affected by them. Yet those who are protesting are feeling that the combination of CAA and NRC will deny citizenship to certain existing Indian citizens or Indian Muslims.
But the confusion began when Union Home Minister Amit Shah in a few speeches made it clear that NRC and CAA are directly linked.
While the confusion prevails, here's 5 times when Amit Shah NRC and CAA are directly linked:
On April 11, 2019, while addressing a rally in West Bengal, Amit Shah had said, "We will ensure implementation of NRC in the entire country. We will remove every single infiltrator from the country, except Buddha, Hindus and Sikhs," reported CNN..
On April 23, 2019, BJP’s official YouTube channel, shared a video in which Amit Shah can be heard saying, "First the CAB will come. All refugees will get citizenship. Then NRC will come. This is why refugees should not worry, but infiltrators should.”
On May 1, 2019, Amit Shah tweeted a video and quoted saying, "First we will pass the Citizenship Amendment bill and ensure that all the refugees from the neighbouring nations get the Indian citizenship. After that NRC will be made and we will detect and deport every infiltrator from our motherland."
A tweet by the BJP on November 4 that brought much discomfort and enough cross-questioning from the anti-CAA protesters, has quietly been deleted. The tweet, whose screenshot is available with IANS, read, "We will ensure implementation of NRC in the entire country. We will remove every single infiltrator from the country, except Buddha, Hindus, and Sikhs: Shri @AmitShah."
During an interview to ABP News, Amit Shah said, "that NRC is linked with CAB. I want to make it clear that first Citizenship Amendment Bill will be introduced, which will give Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddha and Christian from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan citizenship. After which NRC will come and ill remove every single infiltrator from the country." The video was publihed by ABP news on its YouTube Channel on October 2, 2019.
