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BJP promises corrected NRC to protect ‘genuine’ Indian citizens
GUWAHATI The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday promised to initiate the process of correcting the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to “protect genuine Indian citizens and exclude all illegal immigrants” as part of its manifesto for the poll-bound Assam
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday promised to initiate the process of correcting the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to “protect genuine Indian citizens and exclude all illegal immigrants” as part of its manifesto for the poll-bound Assam.
Releasing the party’s manifesto, BJP president JP Nadda announced 10 commitments for an ‘Atmanirbhar Assam’ in the presence of chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and other party leaders.
“Assam was full of problems five years ago, but our government has been able to address some of them by providing inclusive development. We have gained momentum and are now ready to take a big leap in coming years. Besides the 10 commitments, we will work on improving connectivity, health, education, women empowerment etc and take Assam to newer heights,” Nadda said.
The BJP is committed to protect and preserve the “identity and culture” of Assam, keeping the “natural process of cultural change intact”, Nadda said.
The updated NRC for Assam, released in August 2019, excluded 1.9 million of the nearly 33 million applicants. Calling the list faulty, the BJP said that the names of many genuine citizens were left out. The NRC is yet to be notified.
The document comes days after the release of Congress’s manifesto, which included five guarantees such as ₹2,000 monthly to housewives, 200 units of free electricity to all households, an increase in daily wages of tea garden workers to ₹365, and the creation of 500,000 government jobs. The Congress has said that if voted to power, it will not implement the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed in 2019 to fast-track the citizenship process for non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
The CAA triggered protests in Assam amid fears that it could dilute the 1985 Assam Accord and lead to a fresh influx of Bangladeshi Hindus. The accord provided for the deportation of all refugees and migrants, who have entered Assam after March 25, 1971. The CAA extends the deadline until December 31, 2014.
The BJP has promised to implement CAA in poll-bound West Bengal but has not included the issue in its commitments to Assam’s voters.
“CAA has been passed by parliament and it will be implemented. I should not question Congress’s ideology or intellect, but how can central legislation passed by parliament get changed by a state legislation? Either Congress leaders are ignorant about it or they are cheating people of Assam and both of it are detrimental to the state,” Nadda told mediapersons.
On the implementation of the clause six of the Assam Accord, Nadda said, “it is under process and we are committed to it”. The party also promised to speed up the process of delimitation in the state to protect the rights of the people indigenous to the state.
The BJP president said the party is committed to strengthening and scientific management of international borders. “Border management is a continuous process and we will continue to improve it,” he said.
Under the state government’s Orunudoi scheme, the BJP has committed to enhance payments to women to ₹3,000 a month from the existing ₹830 for economic empowerment and extend the scheme to cover 3 million families in the state.
“As part of Mission Shishu Unnayan we will aim to provide quality education to children. This commitment includes free education in all government schools and free bicycles to all girl students from Class 8 and above,” said Nadda.
The party also promised that Assam will be freed from the vagaries of flood by launching “Mission Brahmaputra” with a multi-pronged strategy involving the dredging of rivers and building reservoirs to store excess water from Brahmaputra and its tributaries.
The party announced setting up of a task force to recover lands of Sattras (Vaishnav monastery) and places of worship from illegal encroachment and strengthen all Namghars (prayer halls) and places of worship of the tribals in the state by providing grants of up to ₹2.5 lakh each.
The BJP president again targeted the Congress for forming an alliance with Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). Assam’s identity is inextricably linked to Vaishanav saint Srimanta Sankardeva, Bharat Ratnas Dr Bhupen Hazarika and Gopinath Bordoloi and “now can we allow it to be linked with Badruddin Ajmal”, Nadda said.
The party also stated that if voted to power again, it would introduce legislation to curb love jihad and land jihad. The manifesto did not give any details on what these legislations would entail.
Love jihad is a term used by Hindu outfits to describe relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women. BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh recently enacted laws to check conversion for marriage through fraud, coercion or enticement.
Last month, Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the BJP manifesto for Assam would include action against land jihad, alleging that plots of land, including those belonging to monasteries, were being grabbed by a certain section of people. He said that the party would also bring in a policy mandating a prospective groom to disclose information like religion, employment details, income etc, before marriage.
Reacting to the announcements, Congress media committee chairperson Bobbeeta Sharma said: “The BJP has failed miserably in giving the people of Assam a fool-proof NRC. Their sincerity in solving the illegal migrants’ issue is questionable. If they could not do in it the last five years, what is the guarantee that they will be able to do it in the next five years.”
Political analysts said the BJP was trying to polarize voters through its election manifesto.
“BJP’s manifesto for 2016 included substantive issues like doubling of farm output and implementation of Assam Accord in letter and spirit. Subsequently, when the party was in power, it shifted to launching many beneficiary schemes. From that they have now switched to talking about clash of civilisations and ways to protect Assam’s ‘sanskriti’. Perhaps, the party is not confident that it will win election with its work in the past five years. That’s why they are trying to polarize voters as a key strategy,” said Akhil Ranjan Dutta, professor of political science at Gauhati University.
Assam goes to polls in three phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6; the votes will be counted on May 2.
