Opposition has accused the BJP of doublespeak, saying the ruling party is using the NRC exercise in Assam as a political tool.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have declared there should be no politics over the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC), but his own party has been accused of ‘doublespeak’, with those connected with the exercise treading cautiously, while others are brazenly using it as a political tool.
This is seen as a well thought-out strategy where those in government, connected directly to the Supreme Court-monitored exercise in Assam, will be its responsible, moderate face, but others in BJP will be free to raise political temperatures.
At the end of the day-long meeting of BJP chief ministers and deputy chief ministers with PM Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah Tuesday, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh adopted a belligerent approach.
“The BJP’s stance on NRC is clear — there is no place for foreign infiltrators in this country,” Singh said after the meeting, while talking about Shah’s address.
He also stressed on the party’s support to the citizenship amendment bill and said India should accept Hindus who are forced to flee countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Also read: Modi-Shah discuss BJP election strategy with CMs, thrust on welfare moves & migrants
Singh’s words are significant given he wasn’t speaking in his personal capacity, but as a representative of the party. Moreover, Singh’s use of the word ghuspethiye (infiltrators) is equally significant, given Modi, home minister Rajnath Singh as well as senior Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma have been at great pains to caution against labelling the 40 lakh people left out of the final draft as “illegal migrants”.
A sensitive issue in Assam
Updating NRC in Assam — keeping 24 March, 1971 as the cut-off date to identify those who immigrated illegally from Bangladesh — has been a hot-button issue. Combined with the BJP’s push for the citizenship bill that seeks to grant citizenship to illegal Hindu immigrants from some countries, critics have viewed the NRC as part of the BJP’s Hindutva agenda, particularly ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In an interview to news agency ANI earlier this month, PM Modi had lashed out at West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee for her comments against NRC updation.
“Those who have lost faith in themselves, fear loss of popular support and lack faith in our institutions can use words like ‘civil war’, ‘blood bath’ and ‘desh ke tukde tukde’,” he said.
“Evidently, they are disconnected from the pulse of the nation. I want to assure the people that no citizen of India will have to leave the country. As per the due process, all possible opportunities will be given to get their concerns addressed,” Modi had said.
“It is not about politics but about people. If someone is making it about rajneeti (politics) it is extremely unfortunate,” the PM said.
The moderates in BJP
Home minister Singh was also quick to strike a note of caution, saying there should be no politics over NRC and the exercise has been carried out impartially.
“Some people are unnecessarily trying to create an atmosphere of fear. I want to assure all that there is no need for any apprehension or fear. Some misinformation is also being spread. The NRC process has been done impartially,” he said.
“Some people may not have been able to submit necessary documents. They will get full opportunity to do so through ‘claims and objections’ process. Definitely, they will get justice. There is no need to create panic unnecessarily,” Singh had said.
Sarma, who is also the head of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), has consistently spoken against the politicisation of the issue, condemning what the BJP sees as Banerjee’s attempts to do so.
Also read: Guwahati advocate asks CJI Misra why Justice Gogoi, an Assamese, is hearing NRC case
Stirring the pot
PM Modi, however, does not have to look far to see how blatantly the issue is being politicised. Take, for instance, Shah’s rather inflammatory speeches at recent rallies.
“Why do you want to keep the Bangladeshi infiltrators?” Shah asked Banerjee, while addressing a rally in West Bengal earlier this month.
He was equally vocal at another rally in Rajasthan.
“The Congress never learns. Now this NRC has been implemented in Assam. For years, Bangladeshi ghuspethiye (infiltrators) have been entering the country. The BJP started the work of identifying them,” Shah said.
“The Congress is opposing NRC because they want their vote bank to remain intact…I want to ask the people of Rajasthan, should we deport Bangladeshi infiltrators or not?” he said in Rajsamand district.
In the case of Raman Singh, the remark he made Tuesday was not one-off.
“There is no need to hype up the issue. Is our country a dharmashala that foreigners will keep coming to,” he said after the final draft was released.
“Anybody comes here and starts living. They must be dragged out, and for this purpose only such persons have been identified,” Singh said.
Striking a balance
While words like ‘infiltrators’ and ‘Bangladeshis’ are being used openly by many in the party, the Centre and Assam government — both led by BJP — have gone the extra mile to emphasise that those left out of the list are not being treated as illegal immigrants.
Loose statements by senior leaders such as Shah and Raman Singh on deporting “Bangladeshi infiltrators” also fly in the face of what the government has officially maintained. Given the diplomatic, humanitarian and political angle, deportation seems like an unfeasible option for the state.
Also read: No plan in place for those detected as illegal migrants says Assam minister
In an interview to ThePrint in January after the first NRC draft was released, Sarma had said no discussion, leave alone decision, had been taken on what to do with those eventually identified as illegal immigrants.
“I think people are going too far. As of now the job is to have an NRC, what will be done with that NRC nobody has thought of yet. The discussion in 2005 between PM Manmohan Singh, government of India and government of Assam was limited to upgradation of NRC,” he had said.
“After this, what will happen to the people whose names aren’t there, we will again have to sit down to discuss…There are many ideas being floated around but there is no official discussion between government of Assam and government of India,” Sarma added.
This is not an issue that will resonate in Rajasthan or Chhatisgarh. The actual number of people deported to Bangladesh last year, with the party in power in the Centre and Assam, was 51. To say that no one has thought of what to do with “ illegal immigrants “ is to render the whole NRC process devoid of meaning and purpose. Bangladesh has been informed diplomatically that no one is being sent back, not that they were inclined to accept anyone in the first place. All that has been done is to create a lot of uncertainty and consternation amongst – predominantly Muslim – residents of Assam. No pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for anyone.