AGENCIES
Joining issue with West Bengal, Punjab and some other state Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has assured that his state will not implement the NRC.
A Muslim delegation on Friday who met Chief Minister said he assured them that the state government will not implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“The Chief Minister told us not to panic about the enactment of CAA. He also assured that NRC would not be implemented in the state. There is a fear especially among the members of the Muslim community. However, the Chief Minister assured us that we don’t need to worry,” informed Mohammad Abdul Bari, President, Chauda Mahala Muslim Jamat, Bhadrak.
The Muslim delegation from Bhadrak, Balasore and Jajpur districts on Friday met the Chief Minister after the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, now a law, in Parliament.
They said Patnaik has assured them that his government would not support the NRC and allayed apprehensions over the safety of their community after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
A delegation member said that the Chief Minister assured that his party has opposed the NRC in Parliament and he is not going to implement it in the state.
New Citizenship Act: Onus of saving India’s soul on 16 non-BJP CMs,says Prashant Kishor
Janata Dal-United Vice President and election strategist Prashant Kishor on Friday said that the onus of saving the soul of India lies with the 16 non-BJP Chief Ministers who have to operationalize the newly enacted Citizenship Amendment Act.
Kishore tweeted: “The majority prevailed in Parliament. Now beyond judiciary, the task of saving the soul of India is on 16 Non-BJP CMs as it is the states who have to operationalise these acts. Three Chief Ministers (Punjab/Kerala/WB) have said NO to CAB and NRC (National Registrar of Citizens). Time for others to make their stand clear.”
His remarks came a day after Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee and Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan said that they will not implement the “controversial act” in their states.
Earlier, Kishore, who had planned then BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s famous ‘chai pe charcha’ campaign had urged Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U chief Nitish Kumar to reconsider his decision to support the CAB in Rajya Sabha.
After the JD-U supported the Bill, he again took to Twitter and said: “Disappointed to see JD-U supporting CAB that discriminates right of citizenship on the basis of religion.
“It’s incongruous with the party’s constitution that carries the word secular thrice on the very first page and the leadership that is supposedly guided by Gandhian ideals.”
On Thursday, Kishore also reminded the JD-U of the 2015 assembly elections and said: “While supporting CAB, the JD-U leadership should spare a moment for all those who reposed their faith and trust in it in 2015.
“We must not forget that but for the victory of 2015, the party and its managers wouldn’t have been left with much to cut any deal with anyone.”
“We are told that CAB is bill to grant citizenship and not to take it from anyone. But the truth is together with NRC, it could turn into a lethal combo in the hands of government to systematically discriminate and even prosecute people based on religion,” he lamented.
The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the CAB, two days after it was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The CAB seeks to give Indian nationality to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
