Kolkata: The contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC) is dividing families not only in Assam, where it is currently being implemented, but seemingly across the state border in neighbouring West Bengal too.
As the exercise winds down in Assam, with the final NRC list set to be published by 31 August, there are talks that the Modi government may extend it to the rest of the country. A notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on 31 July states that the government has decided to prepare and update the country’s population register before 30 September, 2020.
Speculation is rife in West Bengal that the state could be next in line, and the battle lines have already been drawn — by two sets of brothers on either side of the political spectrum.
The cousins from Subhash Chandra Bose family
Prof Sugata Bose, a former Trinamool Congress MP, believes the NRC will damage the social fabric of the country. “It is an extremely bad idea that will unnecessarily create social tension and damage the social fabric of our country,” Bose said. “Any such move should be resisted legally and politically.”
Bose, the grand nephew of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, teaches at Harvard University and has studied illegal migrant issues and related politics in both the US and India.
According to him, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are following some of the policies of US President Donald Trump.
“I think chauvinism or ultra-nationalism is now a global phenomenon. In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has preceded Trump,” Bose said. “Modi said in 2014 that he would drive illegal immigrants across the border to Bangladesh on 16 May. Trump used similar language in 2016 when he talked about the wall to keep out the illegal immigrants from Mexico.”
Bose, however, is hopeful that such politics will lose its charm. “At the moment, majoritarianism is rampant but the tide will turn,” he added. “At least in the US, there is more resistance, particularly in the mainstream media. In our country, a large section of the mainstream media has been cowed into submission.”
Sugata Bose’s views, however, are at odds with his cousin Chandra Kumar Bose, the vice-president of West Bengal BJP.
For Chandra Bose, another grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the NRC is “essential but it should be done with a holistic approach”.
“The Opposition should not speak against this for the sake of opposition,” he said. “The Assam Accord was signed during former PM Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure. We failed to understand why a government signed an agreement that they never wished to implement. In 2018, the NDA government tried to implement this following the direction of the Supreme Court. So, BJP has no role to play here.”
He also championed an NRC for the entire country. “As far as the issue of NRC being implemented across the country, it is extremely essential for the nation’s interest,” he said. “Illegal immigrants always dilute the rights of the country’s actual population.”
Chandra Bose also slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of hypocrisy on the issue. “Mamata Banerjee, as an MP in 2005, created a ruckus in Parliament over bogus voters because they were not her vote-bank then. Now, the tables have turned and so she is trying to protect the infiltrators for the sake of her vote bank politics,” he said.
Also read: Updating NRC in Assam is a grave mistake. BJP govt and SC would do well to leave it alone
The Meghalaya governor and his Trinamool MP brother
Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy is no stranger to controversy, time and again tweeting his way into trouble with his communal remarks. In line with his views, Roy defended the NRC though he admitted it has some flaws.
“NRC is as of now confined to Assam,” he said. “Some anomalies were noticed during the process. People serving in armed forces were also documented as outsiders. A mechanism is needed to minimise these issues in Assam.”
According to the Governor, Hindu Bengalis, who faced religious persecution, can only settle in Tripura and the Barak valley in Assam. “The indigenous people of the hill states have no reason to be afraid as there cannot be settlements of these people. It is not easy for the migrants to settle in hilly areas,” said Roy, who was once the president of West Bengal BJP.
He, however, said there should be an NRC in the rest of the country. “For instance, the demography is Bengal has drastically been altered over the last few decades. So, an NRC is essential for the sake of the country.”
On the contrary, his brother and TMC MP Saugata Roy feels NRC will increase the ‘division’ in the country. “It will lead to largescale clashes across states. The government’s logic to implementing the NRC in the country appears to be tenuous,” he said.
According to Saugata Roy, there is no “compulsion of implementing NRC in other states”. “In the case of Assam, it was the direction of the SC, but there is no such compulsion of implementing NRC in other states. So why does the government want to rush with it? We are thoroughly opposed to it.”
Also read: Elections done, BJP quietly buries NRC promise in West Bengal for now
- The copy has been updated to correct Saugata’s name.