Amit Shah sets pan-India NRC deadline: Will drive out illegal immigrants before 2024

Shah has aggressively advocated for implementing NRC across the country, once saying “the name itself is National Register of Citizens, not National Register of Assam.” 

Setting a deadline for the first time for a nation-wide implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC),  Union Home Minister Amit Shah Monday said the government would drive out all “illegal immigrants” before 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“I assure you NRC will be implemented across the country and all infiltrators identified and expelled before 2024 polls,” Amit Shah said at a rally in Jharkhand ahead of the second phase elections.

Hitting out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for opposing the NRC, Shah asked if Gandhi has “relatives” among the infiltrators.

“Ye Rahul baba kehte hain ki NRC kyun la rahe ho? Ghuspetiyon ko kyun nikal rahe ho? Kahan jaenge,kya kahenge? Kyun bhai aapke chachere bhai lagte hain kya? 2024 ke pehle desh se ek-ek ghuspetiyon ko chun-chun kar nikalne ka kaam BJP sarkar karne wali hai (Rahul asks why we are implementing NRC, why we are expelling infiltrators, where will they go. Are these infiltrators his relatives? The BJP government will drive out each and every infiltrator from the country by 2024).”

Shah has aggressively advocated for implementing NRC across the country, once saying “the name itself is National Register of Citizens, not National Register of Assam.”

The final NRC in Assam, published on August 31, excluded 19 lakh applicants and they will get a chance to appeal against their exclusion at the state’s Foreigners’ Tribunals. The BJP, however, has insisted on a fresh NRC in the state after the government last week said it “cannot accept this NRC”.

Shah last week told Rajya Sabha that the NRC exercise would be extended to the whole country and it would be repeated in Assam as well.

Editorial | Shah’s ambition of renewing it in Assam, extending it to country, is flawed and divisive

“The NRC exercise in Assam was undertaken as per an order of the Supreme Court and as per a separate Act. When the NRC exercise is replicated across the country, it will naturally have to be repeated in Assam. I want to make it clear again that people, whichever religion they belong to, should not feel scared. Everybody will be included in NRC,” Shah had said.

Earlier, Shah had said the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) — slotted for the current Winter Session of Parliament — would be passed before a pan-India NRC. While the NRC determines citizenship based entirely on a cut-off date, the CAB proposes to differentiate among immigrants on the basis of religion.

In Jharkhand, Shah rakes up Naxalism, surgical strike

BJP national president Amit Shah on Monday urged the people of Jharkhand to exercise franchise in favour of his party, contending that their votes would determine if the state walked on the path of development or Naxalism.

Addressing a poll meeting here, he said national and local issues were equally important for Jharkhand as people in the state wanted terrorism to be rooted out just as Naxalism. “A majority of the jawans who are guarding the borders are from Jharkhand. People of this state want terrorism and Naxalism to be rooted out. Modi ji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) had given a befitting reply to the terrorists through air and surgical strikes, he claimed.

(Inputs from PTI)

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