The new Citizenship Amendment Act has left our leaders hanging in the balance. The question of whether or not to grant citizenship to Muslim refugees from neighboring Muslim countries has forced the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to say that the Government of India will no longer create a ‘National Citizen Register’ (NRC).
By saying this, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have got both the Government of India and the Bhartiya Janta Party head over heels. He has said that the government is making only ‘National Population Register’, which was there during the BJP government led by former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Congress government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh.
The difference between the Population Register and the Citizen Register is that in the first one who has lived in India for six months, he can write his name but in the second, detailed information will be asked about each person and if any deficiency is found in his investigation, then he will not be granted citizenship. He will be called an intruder.
Modi and Shah are so nervous with the mass protests in the country that both have said that they are not coming with the Citizenship Register even though the BJP’s 2019 manifesto has made a clear promise to make the said Register. Amit Shah said in the Rajya Sabha on 20 November 2019 that the government is determined to create a National Citizens Register.
In my opinion, it is in the national interest. It is a national duty. It must be done. Surprising is why Modi and Shah have turned completely head over heels and taken a complete turn? Is it because they made a mistake in making refugee-law? Muslims have not been added to the list of refugees. Now the country will have to suffer a big punishment for this small mistake of Modi and Shah. Now India, which is already facing population explosion, will become the largest orphanage in South Asia.
It will not only be confined to refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but now India would become a base for refugees, infiltrators, touts and spies from all the neighboring countries.
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