A storm is brewing over the issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC) after Home Minister Amit Shah disclosed in Parliament on Wednesday that the Centre will implement NRC across the country along with Assam. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee declared that her government would not allow the implementation of NRC in her state at any cost.

Amit Shah said in the Rajya Sabha that “the process of NRC will be carried out across the country. No one irrespective of their religion should be worried as it is just a process to get everyone under the NRC”.

The Home Minister clarified that the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was different from the NRC. The CAB aims to provide citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who have fled to India to avoid religious persecution, but he said, the NRC has no such provision that says certain religions will be excluded from it. All citizens of India, irrespective of religion, will figure in the NRC list.”

The NRC process to be implemented across India will take time because the National Population Register(NPR) is not ready. The NPR will be updated during the 2021 Census.

There are many apprehensions about NRC in the minds of the people. I would like to point out here that the NRC process was carried out in Assam on the orders of the Supreme Court. The guidelines for carrying out the process were prepared by the apex court. And now that the Home Minister has said that NRC will be implemented across the country, politicians like Mamata Banerjee have become apprehensive.

Mamata Banerjee is opposing the NRC because she fears that this can cause harm to her vote banks in West Bengal. Amit Shah has clarified at the right time that there would be no religious discrimination while preparing the NRC. Let us wait and watch.

Click Here to Watch Full Video| Get connected on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook