In possibly his most vociferous pitch for the nationwide implementation of the National Register of Citizens, Home minister Amit Shah today said in Parliament that the government will identify all the illegal immigrants and infiltrators staying in any part of the country and deport them as per the international law. The government’s intention, he said, is to ensure that no illegal immigrant is registered under the NRC.
The Home Minister said, “The NRC is part of the Assam Accord and was also in (BJP’s) election manifesto based on which the government has come to power. The government will identify illegal immigrants living on every inch of the country’s soil and will deport them as per the international law.”
Shah was replying to a supplementary query by Samajwadi Party member Javed Ali Khan on whether the NRC will be implemented in other states as well.
The Home Minister’s statement came on a day when his ministry informed the Upper House that it was contemplating pushing the July 31 deadline to release the final NRC list in Assam further in order to ‘maintain fairness’ of the procedure.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said that the Centre has received a number of representations for extending the NRC deadline in Assam. A petition signed by about 25 lakh applicants submitted to the Centre and the President demanded extension to correct anomalies, he informed the House, adding the government has requested the Supreme Court to extend the time for this purpose.
Responding to a query on number of Rohingya Muslims living in India, Rai said, “We don’t have an accurate data. They are spread across the country. Some of them have gone back to Bangladesh. We will get the data soon.”
What BJP promised on NRC issue
In its election manifesto, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had promised extension of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country in a phased manner if it came to power. The saffron party had promised to complete the NRC process in areas, especially those affected by illegal immigration on a priority basis. At present, Assam is the only state to have the NRC, which is being updated under the monitoring of the Supreme Court in the state.
