New Delhi: The NRC process will be carried out across India, Home Minister Amit Shah said in Rajya Sabha Wednesday while making it clear that there would be no discrimination on the basis of religion.
Shah said the Government accepts that refugees – Hindu, Buddhists, Jain, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis – who left Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious atrocities should get Indian citizenship.
“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,” he said replying to a supplementary during Question Hour in the Upper House.
He said there is no provision in NRC that people belonging to other religions will not be included in the register.
“People from all religions who are Indian citizens will be included. There is no question of any discrimination on the basis of religion. NRC is a different process and the Citizenship Amendment Bill is different,” Shah said.
In Assam, the NRC process was carried out as per Supreme Court order, he said and added that when the NRC process will be implemented in the entire country Assam will also be included.
The Home Minister said that in Assam, people whose name has not figured in the draft list, have the right to go to the Tribunal.
“Tribunals will be constituted across Assam. If any person doesn’t have the money to approach tribunals, then the Assam government will bear the cost to hire a lawyer,” he said.
He reiterated that all citizens of India irrespective of religion will figure in the NRC list.
The Home Minister said the government accepts that Hindu refugees, Buddhists, Jain, Christians and Sikh and Parsi should get this country’s citizenship and this is why the Citizenship Amendment Bill is there.
“All refugees coming from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan on account of religious atrocities will get citizenship under the Bill,” he said.
He said Lok Sabha had passed the Bill and the Select Committee had approved it but Lok Sabha had lapsed.
“Now it will come again. It has no connection with the NRC,” he said.
Also read: Assam NRC a tool for targeting religious minorities: US commission on religious freedom
This would b another inning for the BJP to get the common citizen’s involvement and debated politics for another few years of their office. Smart move, no one is bothered to deviate and ask questions about the other issues linking livelihood of middle class and poor. Today I learnt that a small time businessmen in my town Aurangabad (M.S) committed suicide by hanging as he could not afford paying GST. No one’s asking his religion and no one’s bothered about his death except his grieving family. I feel our masses are stuck and bitterly involved in religious and identity issues that they have lost the sense of questioning the owner in the centre for the pity state of governance. War on social media from the delegated technocrats of the political parties are keeping the educated class fully involved on the internet loosing the most valuable time to think and question the authorities. Corruption has seen a three fold hike fully protected on all levels of governance and the individual asking for justice or even question is termed as anti nationals. The first time the minority feel unsafe and less hopeful of getting justice even from the highest court. The judiciary seem equally divided and works in whispers to avoid the identity of themselves getting targeted in future on white paper. We often talk about a failed state like Pakistan being our neighbor and enemy no. 1 but for the middle class and poor the scenario remains unchanged, both struggling to survive amid the curtailing human values and rights being citizens. Now we would be busy proving ourselves to be the rightist and legal citizen of our beloved nation where we lived for generations. For muslims they can at least visit the graves of their forefathers to collect the samples of DNA, but for other hindu brothers it would be difficult as the burnt ashes has already been submerged and nothing remains to prove their legitimate right of being a CITIZEN OF INDIA. Only God help us all.