NRC draft row: Shah accuses Mamata for compromising with interests of Indians

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President Amit Shah on Saturday attacked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for opposing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and accused her of compromising the interests of Indians in Assam and West Bengal for her vote bank politics.

Reacting to Banerjee's criticism on the NRC draft, the BJP chief during a public rally in Kolkata also accused Banerjee of protecting illegal immigrants.

"Should Bangladeshi immigrants not be thrown out of the country? We want to ask Mamata Banerjee why is she protecting Bangladeshi infiltrators? All Mamata ji has done is to object the NRC. But the NRC is the process to throw illegal immigrants out. She (Mamata) is compromising with the interests of Indians in Assam and West Bengal for her vote bank politics. But for us country comes first before vote bank. Oppose us as much as you want but we will not stall the process of NRC," he said.

The BJP supremo also dragged Congress President Rahul Gandhi into the controversy. "Rahul Gandhi is also not clarifying his stand on the issue. This is because of Congress' vote-bank politics," he said while adding that both Banerjee and Gandhi cannot stop the BJP from carrying out the NRC. "The BJP will make sure that the NRC is carried out peacefully in Assam. Neither West Bengal Chief Minister nor Rahul Gandhi can stop the BJP from doing it," Shah asserted.

Steeping up political attack on Trinamool Congress (TMC), Shah accused the party of promoting corruption in West Bengal. "Corruption is flourishing in the state since the party came to power. Ever since Banerjee became the chief minister of the state, West Bengal has seen scam after scam," he added and cited the example of Narda scam and Sharda chit-fund scam to ascertain his claim. He asserted that the state is going to witness a change and the BJP is going to uproot TMC.

Meanwhile, Shah blamed Banerjee for disrupting the broadcast of his rally on all Bengali channels in the state. "Signals of all Bengali channels have been lowered so that people will not be able to watch us. But even if you try to suppress our voices, we will go to every district of Bengal and throw TMC out. All Bangla TV news channels have been blacked out the rally. We are not against West Bengal, but we are definitely against
Mamata Banerjee. I am here to protest against the TMC," Shah said.

Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Babul Supriyo took to Twitter to comment: "Reliable sources confirm #SitiCable owner Sri Suresh Sethia was threatened yesterday & forced to Black Out Prime Bengali News Channels Blocking the Live Telecast of Sri @AmitShah ji's Rally&Speech. It didn't work cuz National Channels r reaching it LIVE to the Hearts of WB."

Banerjee has been consistently disapproving the latest NRC draft, which has left out nearly 40 lakh people in Assam while incorporating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. Accusing BJP of vendetta politics, Banerjee had said that the party was targeting people, particularly the minorities, in the wake of general elections scheduled in 2019.

The Opposition parties, including, the Congress have been vociferous against the draft. Congress president Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to criticise the draft, and said the "execution of the critical and highly sensitive exercise is tardy".

The first draft was published on December 31, 2017, and names of 1.9 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated. The NRC draft features the names, addresses and photographs of all Indian citizens, who have been residing in the northeastern state before March 25, 1971.