Kolkata : The Lok Sabha poll debacle seems to have pushed Trinamool Congress in West Bengal to a compromising position as the party seems to deviate from its earlier stand on National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue. The party, which all along opposed NRC, has said that the process should be implemented in such a way so that it is not “politically motivated”.
Tapas Roy , chief whip of Trinamool Congress, said, “We think that the process of NRC should be implemented in such a way so that it’s not politically motivated . Amit Shah has said in the Parliament that they will identify immigrants from various states and deport them. We will request the Center to follow the guidelines as per UN convention while implementing NRC. “
Senior TMC leaders also said that the NRC Assam had deleted the names of 40 lakh people from the first list . We are trying to say that our party only can support NRC if it’s not politically motivated. The BJP should first clarify the definition of an illegal immigrants before trying to deport any one,” he said.
Sudip Bandhyopadhyay TMC MP said “We cannot support NRC if it’s politically motivated . Let us see how they are going to implement it and then we will give our views on this regard.“
On Wednesday, while responding to a question of Javed Ali Khan, SP leader who asked whether NRC will be implemented in all the states , Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in the Parliament that NRC will be implemented in all the states as per the international law. The NRC is a part of the Assam Accord and government will identify all illegal immigrants and will deport them.
Incidentally before the Lok Sabha election, the TMC had opposed NRC and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that they will not allow NRC to be implemented in the state. Even TMC MP’s have staged protest outside the Parliament claiming that they will not allow NRC to be implemented in Bengal as the BJP is trying to deport people of Bengal , claiming them to be illegal immigrants.
How BJP reacted to the stand of TMC
West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “ The TMC is trying to portray a positive image towards people, but it won’t yield results. Whether they accept this decision or not, the NRC will be implemented in all states as discussed by home minister in the Parliament”.
Political analysts view
With the sudden shift of Trinamool Congress strategy, a majority of the political analysts are of the opinion that sudden change of tactics of the TMC is due its poor performance in the last Lok Sabha election.
Bishwanath Chakraborty, a senior political analyst, said “The TMC was compelled to change its strategy after their poor show in the Lok Sabha elections. Banerjee must have realised that constructive opposition is more meaningful than opposing every policy of the Center, and that’s why her party has chose to oppose the Bill. The outcome of the decision is yet to be seen, but the public perception for Mamata might change after this stand of TMC regarding implementation of NRC in all states.”