Terming the National Register of Citizens(NRC) in Assam as a "fiasco," West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that the BJP has carried out the exercise with an ulterior motive.
She tweeted her remarks on Sunday, reports NDTV.
The NRC fiasco has exposed all those who tried to take political mileage out of it. They have a lot to answer to the nation.
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) August 31, 2019
This is what happens when an act is guided by an ulterior motive rather than the good of the society and the larger interest of the nation.(1/2)
Over 1.9 million people were left out of the NRC list published on Saturday morning, and they are now required to prove their citizenship in order to avoid government action.
The exercise, which has been going on for years now, was aimed at weeding out illegal migrants who have settled down in the state over the course of decades.
The Trinamool Congress, one of the most voracious critics of the NRC, has often taken the center to task for what it terms as as "divisive exercise."
The BJP, on the other hand, has promised to implement the exercise in West Bengal if it is voted to power there.
Another Trinamool Congress leader, Firhad Hakim, said that the center will have to take responsibility for the 1.9 million applicants who failed to make it to the final NRC list.
He termed the NRC exercise as a plot to drive Bengalis out of Assam.
Hakim said: "People have been rendered homeless in their own country. How can the government be so insensitive that on one fine morning, it is declaring citizens who have been living in Assam for last several decades as foreigners?"
However, the Trinamool Congress is not the only party that's unhappy with the NRC. While the BJP wants re-verification in many areas of Assam, especially districts bordering Bangladesh, the Congress claims that many genuine citizens were left out of the list published today.
BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma told NDTV reporters: "The BJP supports the NRC exercise, but we feel that there are certain lacunae that should have been plugged."
He added that the center and the Assam government have requested the Supreme Court to allow 20% re-verification in districts that border Assam and 10% in others.
Tarun Gogoi, who previously headed the Congress government in Assam, said that his party will not allow the BJP to communalize the NRC exercise.
"If the BJP is crying(foul), whose responsibility is it? It's the BJP government in the state that has prepared this list. Our position is clear: It doesn't matter if the person is Hindu or Muslim...any individual who's a foreigner should not be included."
