BJP’s Bengali version booklet on CAA mentions NRC next

Kolkata, Jan 07: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bengal had earlier vowed that they will implement National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state if they come to power, on Sunday the BJP Bengal unit had launched a booklet in Bengali version on Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Kolkata.

The book is a part of the BJP's campaign to spread awareness about the amended citizenship law across the nation.

On the same day, Union Home Minister and BJP's national president Amit Shah led the party's door-to-door 10-day campaign to dispel misinformation about CAA and spread awareness about the newly amended citizenship law with top party leaders reaching out to people across the country.

Although, the Hindi version of the booklet was launched there was one difference in both the versions and that is in the Bengali version it was mentioned that citizen's register NRC will be implemented after CAA. However, the Hindi version does not mention anything on NRC.

The Indian Express reports suggest, in the 23-page booklet, on the last page some question reads- "Will it be NRC after this? How much it is needed? And if there is NRC, will Hindus have to go to detention centres like in Assam?"

And the answer reads- "Yes, after this NRC will be implemented. At least the central government's intention looks like that. Before that, we would like to clearly mention that no Hindus will have to go to detention centre due to NRC. Those 11 lakh Hindus who are in detention centres in Assam are staying there because of the Foreigners Act."

Followed with this the booklet gives a description on implementation of NRC in Assam was according to Supreme Court's direction, and as per the Foreigners Act that was passed by the then Congress government in the state.

According to the booklet, the BJP government Assam did not bring the NRC.

Regarding the mentioning of NRC in the Bengali version of the party's CAA awareness booklet the general secretary in the Bengal unit of BJP, Sayantan Basu said that the Bengali version is not the translation of Hindi. In West Bengal people have confusions over the CAA and NRC, hence the NRC point has been mentioned, along with which it is also mentioned that exercise of NRC is the Centre's prerogative.