Why silent about NRC, BNP asks govt

[Black_cats]

Why silent about NRC, BNP asks govt

Dhaka December 22, 08:43 PM 131 Views

Photo:Collected

BNP on Sunday alleged that the government has taken a position against the country’s people and its sovereignty by remaining silent about National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam since Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims are being pushed into Bangladesh.

“Protests are now there across India terming the Citizenship Amendment Act undemocratic, discriminatory, unconstitutional, and against humanity…The Act has been enacted only targeting the Muslim minority community in India,” said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

He further said, “Bangladesh is already overburdened with 11 lakh Rohingyas. It’s clearly a position against the state, our people and sovereignty as the government is exposing its failed foreign policy remaining silent over the evolving situation centring the NRC.”

The BNP leader came up with the remarks at a press conference at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office.

Referring to media reports, Fakhrul said a detention centre has already been constructed in Assam's Goalpara while a process is on to construct more such centres across India as 19 lakh people were left out of the Assam's final NRC.

The BNP leader alleged that the government is trying to ignore the NRC issue describing it as India’s internal affairs though it is a threat to the country’s independence sovereignty as Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims are being pushed into Bangladesh very carefully through different borders. “It has triggered strong protest in India itself, and tension along the border.”

He also voiced concern that the way Myanmar made Rohingyas stateless and forced them to take shelter in Bangladesh using the state machinery and unleashing persecution, the same way a process is on to push Indian Muslim minorities into Bangladesh by force using the NRC and Citizenship Amendment Act.

The BNP leader said there is no basic difference between sending Rohingyas to Bangladesh resorting to repression by Myanmar and pushing Indian Muslims into Bangladesh by force through the border.

Fakhrul denounced the remarks made by Indian Home Minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar involving BNP with the persecution of Hindu community members in Bangladesh.

He also demanded immediate withdrawal of such ‘untrue, false and misleading’ remarks about BNP by the Indian leaders in the greater interest of the two countries.

The BNP leader said the Indian government by deliberately criticising a popular party like BNP has demonstrated that it is much interested in developing its relations with Awami League than that of the people of Bangladesh with a motive to make its narrow political gains.

He said their party firmly believes that the remarks of Amit Shah and Raveesh Kumar are regrettable, untrue, unilateral, misleading, discriminatory and highly questionable. “We strongly turn down their remarks.”

Fakhrul urged the Indian ruling party leaders to refrain from making misleading statements about BNP in the future for the sake of mutual assistance and cooperation.

BNP standing committee members Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Selima Rahman and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku were present.

https://unb.com.bd/m/category/Bangladesh/why-silent-about-nrc-bnp-asks-govt/39000

 

[PaulSimon]

since Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims are being pushed into Bangladesh.

How can they be pushed?

 

[Black_cats]

How can they be pushed?

Forcing them into Bangladesh territory at night where BGB patrol is less. Everyday around 100 Indians are getting pushed into Bangladesh in last 2-3 month.

 

[PaulSimon]

Forcing them into Bangladesh territory at night where BGB patrol is less. Everyday around 100 Indians are getting pushed into Bangladesh in last 2-3 month.

So at this rate it is going to take at least 15 years to push all the ~5,00,000 illegal Bangladeshi Muslims?

 

[mb444]

So at this rate it is going to take at least 15 years to push all the ~5,00,000 illegal Bangladeshi Muslims?

Where have you pulled this this number out of?

 

[PaulSimon]

Where have you pulled this this number out of?

Assam NRC.

 

[Black_cats]

Assam NRC.

There may be 2-2.5 lakh Assamese Muslim will be left out. But they will appeal at court and many of them will get back their citizenship. Even if some are excluded from NRC it does not mean they are Bangladeshi citizen.

This push back already has come into the notice of media and general public. India won’t be able to do this for long.

 

[PaulSimon]

There may be 2-2.5 lakh Assamese Muslim will be left out. But they will appeal at court and many of them will get back their citizenship. Even if some are excluded from NRC it does not mean they are Bangladeshi citizen.

This push back already has come into the notice of media and general public. India won’t be able to do this for long.

No one knows the actual break up of Muslims vs Hindus. It is all speculation at this time.

Exclusion of Hindu Bengalis from Assam NRC changing political
Press Trust of India | Kolkata Last Updated at September 22, 2019 13:40 IST



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The spectre of NRC implementation is fast turning Bengal into a political battleground, with the TMC appearing to have an advantage over the BJP after the omission of a large number of Hindu Bengalis from the register in saffron party-ruled Assam.

The demand for the NRC exercise to weed out infiltrators has been gaining momentum since last year in the state, which shares over 2000-km-long border with Bangladesh.


However, the publication of the final NRC list in Assam, which left out over 19.6 lakh people - of which around 12 lakh are Hindus and Bengali Hindus - has changed the political narrative in the state to a great extent.

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has been on the offensive by milking the issue of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as an "anti-Bengali" move on the part of the saffron party.

"What does the omission of 12 lakh Bengalis and Hindus from Assam NRC show? It shows that it is a tool to target Bengalis. The BJP which claims to be the champion of Hindus and its rights should first answer how come Hindus and Bengalis were omitted from the list.

"The figures prove that their main target was Bengalis," TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said.

BJP national president Amit Shah, who had repeatedly said that the exercise would be conducted across India, is expected to address a seminar on the issue here on October 1.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who met the Union home minister in Delhi over the matter early this week, has been building strong public opinion against the exercise. The TMC supremo had led a rally against NRC on September 12 here.

Last month, the West Bengal Assembly had passed a resolution against NRC, with Banerjee vowing not to allow its implementation in Bengal.

TMC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the register has not just divided the masses, but also made people refugees in their own country.

"The BJP has said if it comes to power, it will implement NRC in Bengal. So the people of Bengal are conscious enough to decide what is good and bad for them. The party should first explain why Bengalis and Hindus have been excluded from the list," Bandopadhyay said.

The ripple effect of NRC in Assam has already been felt in Bengal, especially in districts bordering the neighbouring state, with panicked people lining up at government offices to get documents in place.

Two recent deaths in the state have been attributed to the panic swirling around the citizenship register.

The TMC leadership has blamed the BJP for creating anxiety over NRC in Bengal.

Banerjee, however, iterated that the exercise will not be allowed in the state and the BJP would have to get past her if they tried to touch anyone.

The promise of NRC implementation, which has been a major poll plank of the BJP in the last Lok Sabha polls, is considered by its leaders as a plausible factor that led to the rise of the party in Bengal, having bagged 18 parliamentary seats earlier this year.

Nevertheless, the exclusion of around 12 lakh Hindus from the final NRC list in Assam has put the saffron party in a precarious situation.

The party has now said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill would be implemented first, which would provide Hindu refugees Indian nationality, and then the process to oust "Muslim infiltrators" would be carried out.

"The illegal Bangladeshi Muslims pose security threat to the inhabitants of the state and the country," state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh told PTI.

During the 1971 Liberation War in Bangladesh, millions of people had fled the country and moved to India, particularly in Bengal and the northeast region.

"In Bengal, we would first implement citizenship bill and then the NRC. The TMC is just trying to create a panic to reap political dividends," Ghosh added.

According to sources in the TMC, the Mamata Banerjee- led party is trying to play the "anti-Bengali card" in Bengal, ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls.

"After our setback in the Lok Sabha polls, where our tally dropped and BJP's grew by leaps and bounds, we have been looking for an issue to counter their narrative. The NRC has given us that issue," a senior state TMC leader told PTI.

BJP's refugee cell chief Mohit Roy conceded that the final NRC list in Assam is a setback for the party, but assuaged all fears by saying Hindus, who have been left out of the list, will be secured through the implementation of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The contentious bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant Indian nationality to people of minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The NRC issue serves dual purpose for the ruling party -- firstly it would help unite the Bengalis against the BJP, a section of which had drifted towards the saffron party during the Lok Sabha polls, and then it would further cement its base among the 30 per cent Muslim population in Bengal, the TMC sources said.

A deciding factor in nearly 80-100 of 294 assembly seats in the state, minorities, especially Muslims, are likely extend their support to the TMC, as they are opposed to NRC in Bengal, the ruling party's Muslim leadership has claimed.

The BJP leadership, on the other hand, feels the TMC's plans to use NRC to regain its lost ground won't yield any results "as the Banerjee-led party has lost the plot in Bengal and the state is yearning for a change in 2021".

Opposition Congress and CPI(M), however, are of the opinion that both the BJP and the TMC are using the matter to serve their own political interests with utter disregard for the suffering for the masses.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)



First Published: Sun, September 22 2019. 13:40 IST

https://www.business-standard.com/a...am-nrc-changing-political-119092200259_1.html