Home minister Amit Shah in the latest session of Rajya Sabha revealed that the central government is planning to carry out NRC all over India and whenever it will be conducted Assam will again have to go through the whole process once more.
He was asked a question by Syed Nasir Hussain, a Congress MP from Karnataka. “The Home Minister while speaking in Kolkata recently had said that all those names which didn’t figure in the NRC, belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian community need not worry. My question is whether under the NRC citizenship can be granted to certain communities and excluded for Muslims,” Mr. Hussain said.
Mr. Shah carried on, “I think the member is confused between the NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Bill. The NRC has no provision to exclude any person of any religion. All Indian citizens will be included irrespective of their religion.”
On being asked whether the government would make a distinction between illegal migrants and non-citizens, Indian Home minister replied, “The NRC was undertaken as per the Supreme Court directive. The process will be carried out across the country. No one irrespective of their religion should be worried. The NRC doesn’t discriminate against any Indian citizen on the basis of religion. It is just a process to get everyone on the NRC and whenever it is done it is only obvious that it will repeated in Assam too.”
Mr. Shah said that government understands and accepts that refugees – Hindu, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis — who left Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan due to religious problems in their homeland should get Indian citizenship. Keeping this mind, government will bring a Citizenship Bill as soon as possible.
