Aparna backs Assam NRC draft list

The raging controversy over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam has created a stir at the Centre and in opposition parties alike. 

As Rahul Gandhi’s Congress, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party have publicly criticised the draft list, a statement from Akhilesh Yadav’s sister-in-law Aparna Yadav has criticised Mamata Banerjee and supported the NRC.

The daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav came out in support of the NRC draft list, saying that Mamata Banerjee’s government must not support the presence of illegal migrants in Assam. She said the West Bengal Chief Minister should take the NRC issue as national security issue. 

The Samajwadi Party’s stand is in conflict with this view as the SP created an uproar along with other opposition parties in the Rajya Sabha after which the session was adjourned. 

“There is no problem with lawful immigrants. Problem arises because of those who come to the county unlawfully. I think Mamataji should not have made a statement supporting illegal immigrants. She should ponder upon it, it is a national security issue,” Aparna Yadav said here on Sunday. 

Several SP leaders, along with TMC, Congress, and CPI(M), argued in the Lok Sabha against the NRC which, they said, put the “democratic and human rights of the people at stake”. 

The NRC of Assam has excluded as many as 40 lakh names making them ‘illegal’ migrants in the state.

Even though Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has clarified that this is only a draft list and not the final one, there has been severe backlash from the opposition parties, with strong remarks from TMC’s Mamata Banerjee, who claimed that this may result in a “civil war” or a “bloodbath”.