SHILLONG: Congress MP and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh said the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) are instruments of the RSS and the BJP.
Stating that the Congress is taking a principled stand on CAB, he told reporters on Monday that politics is more than just number games.
He added that the Congress is seeking support of other political parties as well. “The Congress is opposed to the CAB as it is a Bill to divide the Indian society which violates Article 14 and Article 21. CAB is anti-secular and it goes against the Preamble and the Constitution”. He informed that Meghalaya is the second state where the Congress leaders decided to visit and they will visit all other Northeastern states to study the effect of issues such as the CAB and the NRC.
He said CAB is an RSS-BJP project to divide India on religious lines.
With regard to the issue of NRC, he said the Congress is opposed to illegal migrants and immigration which he said must be stopped at the border.
“NRC is a very complicated exercise and it requires public education and awareness. To have NRC in other states requires a lot of home work and there is a need to see that NRC does not become an instrument of harassment. NRC is an instrument of the RSS-BJP to divide and polarise the people”, he added.
Ramesh said the Congress is prepared to be part of national dialogue which will plan for a harassment free NRC which will take time but maintained that it will not allow India to become a haven of illegal migrants.
He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah discussed about CAB and the NRC only to divert attention from problems faced by farmers, traders, economic crisis and dearth of jobs.
He went on to add that the Congress will expose BJP’s politics of dividing the society on caste, religion and language.
