Amid CAA row, Asaduddin Owaisi questions fate of ‘1.5 lakh Muslims left out of NRC in Assam’
Amid a row over the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday questioned the fate of 1.5 lakh Muslims, who were allegedly left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list in Assam.
Addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad on Friday, days after the BJP-led Centre published the rules for implementing CAA across the country, Owaisi questioned how Muslims left out of NRC will be given citizenship.
“Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said the 12 lakh Hindus listed in the NRC conducted in the state will be given Indian citizenship under CAA, but what about the 1.5 lakh Muslims? People are saying nothing is going to happen immediately. I want to tell them that things take time to unfold…” Owaisi was quoted as saying by ANI.
The AIMIM chief claimed that Muslims left out of the NRC list will be asked to prove their descent by tracing their ancestry from 1962 or even 1951 at the Foreigners’ Tribunal.
“They will be asked if they came in 1962 or 1951. They will be asked to show documents and birth certificates of their grandfathers. Those 1.5 lakh Muslims will be asked to fight it out at the Foreigners’ Tribunal,” the AIMIM chief said, according to ANI.
He also said out that home minister Amit Shah has in the past mentioned that CAA will be followed by the nationwide exercise of NRC and the National Population Register (NPR).
“Home Minister Amit Shah said in Parliament that NPR and NRC will also be implemented. Did he not talk about NPR and NRC in TV interviews?” the Hyderabad MP said.
Owaisi, however, pointed out that he was open to the idea of granting citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries but the methodology for doing that should not be based on religion.
“The government must give citizenship to people who come from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, but on the basis of religion,” he said.
Opposition on CAA
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government on Monday implemented CAA, the law that paves the way for citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014. The development came four years after Parliament passed the law in December 2019.
The notification of the Act triggered criticism from Opposition leaders, who claimed that the notified rules were “unconstitutional”, “discriminatory” and violative of the “secular principle of citizenship” enshrined in the Constitution.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will hear a clutch of pleas demanding that the rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, be stayed, and that no coercive steps be taken against persons belonging to the Muslim community.