Stepping up its campaign on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Congress on Sunday alleged that the Modi government had tried to delay the process by arguing before the Supreme Court that the NRC could lead to law-and-order issues.
The Congress also demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal as the BJP tried to “mislead” the people of Assam.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera told presspersons that on November 30, the Attorney-General argued before the top court that the publication of the NRC could lead to violence and create a law-and-order problem.
“On November 30, 2017, the Supreme Court came down heavily on the Modi government for its excuses to delay the NRC in Assam. The Attorney-General gave the excuse of fear of violence,” Mr. Khera said and pointed out that the court reprimanded the government.
“We do not see how the aforesaid situation can even remotely arise as we have already indicated in the earlier part of the present order that claims of 47 lakh persons (regarding whom the doubt pertained to parental linkage) and 29 lakh persons (married women who had submitted gram panchayat secretary certificates) are still pending and would be subject to verification and covered by publication of another draft NRC at a subsequent point of time,” Mr. Khera said quoting the SC.
The Congress has stepped up its campaign after BJP president Amit Shah said in Parliament that it was the BJP government that had shown the “courage” to implement it.
The Congress counter has been that the NRC update was the outcome of the 1985 Assam Accord, signed by the Rajiv Gandhi govenment, and was started by a Congress government in the State.
On Monday, former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will be addressing a press conference in Delhi on the NRC issue.
“The Shah of lies and the Shahenshah of Jumlas tried their best to stall NRC. I will tell you how they hatched a conspiracy to stop, delay and disrupt the NRC process,” Mr. Khera said.
“We demand that the Modi government apologise to the people of Assam for attempting to stall the NRC ... We also demand the resignation of the so-called Jan Nayak Shri Sarbanand Sonowal who has no right to be the Chief Minister of a State that his party so shamelessly cheated in the Supreme Court on the issue of NRC,” he said.