Krishnana, April 22: BJP president Amit Shah said if returned to power his party would implement Citizenship (Amendment) Bill prior to introducing National Register of Citizenship in West Bengal to identify the infiltrators and to push back them. This would be in contrary to what happened in Assam where NRC was introduced first.
Speaking at a public meeting in support of Kalyan Chaubey, BJP’s Krishnanagar candidate, Shah said, “In West Bengal Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will come first. The NRC would follow it. First the Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains who came from neighboring countries and took shelters as refugees, would be given citizenship. This would follow the NRC, which will be introduced across the country”.
“West Bengal would be an exception as far as CAB is concerned”, he added.
Amit Shah with Kalyan Chaubey (Abhi Ghosh)
Shah flayed Mamata, who on repeated occasions alleged that the NRC, which seeks to weed out illegal migrants from Assam, would eventually turn even bona fide Indian citizens into refugees.
Earlier Trinamul Congress blocked the bill in Parliament. But, Shah said, “There is no reason to be panicked..Hindus, Sikhs who came here as refugees will be given citizenship”.
The NRC created a major controversy since around names of around 40lakh persons living in Assam for decades, went missing from the complete draft that was released last year. But, Shah reiterated party’s stand about identifying the “infiltrators” and providing citizenship to the “refugees”.
Reiterating the stand on pushing out the infiltrators Shah said, “Should we prevent the infiltrators or not? Should push them out or not? We will push back them..Mamata Didi will not do this job, because she seeks their votes. So how can she push them back? But, those who are refugees like Hindu, Sikhs, Christian and others and taken shelter here coming from neighboring countries will be given the citizenship with honor. Mamataji prevented the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the parliament. She is misleading people scaring them all Hindu, Sikhs would be pushed back. But, I assure you that if NRC introduced no Hindu, Sikh would be pushed back and they will be given citizenship. But, after this we will identify the infiltrators and pick them up one by one and push back without any doubt”
Shah said, “It is our commitment to introduce the NRC across the country to chuck away the infiltrators one by one. First, we will introduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, so that all the refugees get citizenship, and the NRC follows the process to throw out infiltrators,” he said.
Earlier speaking in the rally, Shah asked Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to clarify her stand on Article 370 and to tell the countrymen whether she favours a separate prime minister for Jammu and Kashmir similar to the demand of National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.
Shah alleged that Mamata supports NC’s claim of dual prime minister. “If she comes here you ask Mamata Didi whether she supports the demand or not…I know she would become silent on your question…because she has a fear of losing vote bank…but you tell us do you agree to this demand…If we return to power such articles should be scrapped”.
Shah categorically stated that if come to power BJP will scrap Article 370 that grants special status to J&K.
Shah later lashed out on Mamata for expressing doubts about the Balakot airstrike, which he blamed her to appease her minority vote bank. Sha told Mamata, “Mamata Didi aapko terroristo ke sath ILU ILU karna hain to kijiya, lekin yet BJP sarkar hain, Narendra Modi ki sarkar hain, Pakistan se goli ayegi to yahan se gola jayega..it ka jawab paththar se diya jayega. Yeh hamara sankalp,…bharat ke security ke sath koi compromise nahi”.