SEAnews 2018-08-16 ArtNo.46321

【New Delhi】The Congress has decided not to take the bait thrown at it by the Bharatiya Janata Party on the controversy over the exclusion of 40 lakh residents from the draft report of the National Register of Citizens in Assam.
　After a prolonged discussion on the issue at the meeting of the party’s working committee on August 11, the Congress took a conscious decision that its members should not make any provocative statements or highlight the fact that the BJP is using the NRC report to target Muslims as this would only propagate the saffron party’s communal agenda.
　Instead, the working committee was of the view that the Congress should tom-tom the fact that the NRC is their baby since the process of identifying “illegal citizens” in Assam was initiated by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It was also decided to cite facts and figures to nail the BJP’s claim that the Congress was soft on matters of national security. At the same time, the party’s Assam unit was asked to provide necessary legal help to citizens whose names have been left out of the citizens’ register.
　The Congress party’s position was firmed up days after BJP president Amit Shah sought to make the NRC report a national poll issue when he declared in Parliament and at a press conference that it was only his party which had shown the courage to implement the NRC and curb illegal infiltration. On the other hand, Shah said, the Congress failed to act on it even though the Assam accord was signed by Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. While demanding that the opposition parties clarify their stand on illegal infiltration, he accused the Congress of not being sufficiently tough on national security.
　The BJP’s aggressive pitch had virtually drowned out the Congress party’s initial reaction.

○Trinamool team held at airport in Assam

【Silchar/New Delhi】The Assam police allegedly roughed up and detained a delegation of eight Trinamool Congress leaders from West Bengal at Kumbhirgram airport in southern Assam’s Silchar on August 2.
　The eight — six MPs and two MLAs — had arrived on a two-day visit to assess the situation arising out of the complete draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on July 30 and meet some people excluded from the list. Six of the eight-member Trinamool Congress delegation left Assam on August 3 morning after overnight detention at Silchar airport, an official said.
　Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy raised the issue of Assam’s National Register of Citizens during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha on August 2, demanding that Home Minister Rajnath Singh immediately visit the State. Saying that he had moved an adjournment motion to discuss the issue, Mr. Roy said apart from Bengali-speaking Muslims and Hindus, people from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu were also among the 40 lakh names omitted from the NRC. He said that six lakh Scheduled Caste (Matua) people were also excluded from the list. He added that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked whether the Centre was playing a ‘divide and rule’ policy.

【News source】

Worried that the BJP may be winning the perception battle, Congress carefully changes stance on NRC

Trinamool team held at airport in Assam

TMC delegation leave Assam after overnight detention at Silchar airport

NRC update: Rajnath should visit Assam, says Trinamool MP Saugata Roy

○One world：The aim of SEAnews

The aim of SEAnews is to realize one world that overcomes race / religion / ideological differences.