Describing the National Register of Citizens in Assam as a “botched up exercise”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said that those who tried to extract political mileage out of it will have to answer the nation. She also said that the exercise was guided by “ulterior motive rather than good of society and larger interest of nation”.
“The NRC fiasco has exposed all those who tried to take political mileage out of it. They have a lot to answer to the nation. This is what happens when an act is guided by an ulterior motive rather than the good of the society and the larger interest of the nation,” she tweeted.
Earlier in the day, the final list of NRC in Assam was published in which 19 lakh people were excluded. The Trinamool Congress chairperson has been one of the most vocal critics of the exercise and had even sent a team of her party MPs to take stock of the situation in Assam.
“My heart goes out to all those, especially the large number of Bengali-speaking brothers and sisters, who are made to suffer because of this botched-up process,” she added.
Ms. Banerjee had during the campaign described NRC as a conspiracy against Bengali speaking people.
Meanwhile, State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said that the BJP will start a similar exercise in West Bengal if voted to power in the state.
