Senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan said on Wednesday that an NRC exercise would not be allowed in West Bengal and asked the propagators of this idea not to “play with fire”, even as former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta urged the Centre to prepare a similar list for the residents of West Bengal saying the State was also “affected by illegal immigration” from Bangladesh.
“Parties should desist from trying to reap political dividends by polarising people in the name of NRC,” said Mr. Mannan, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly.
Bengal BJP plea
BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha had on Tuesday urged the Indian Muslims, especially those living in West Bengal, to support an NRC exercise in the State claiming that it was becoming a hub for infiltrators under the Trinamool Congress rule.
West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh had also said that an NRC on the lines of the one in Assam would be published in the Bengal if his party is voted to power in the State.
Without naming the BJP, Mr. Mannan said, “Some people are also talking about conducting the NRC exercise in West Bengal if they came to power in the future. They should not play with fire. We assert this will never be allowed to happen in our State.”
Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty termed Mr. Ghosh’s statement on conducting an NRC exercise in West Bengal ‘audacious’.
‘NRC in all States’
Meanwhile in Delhi, Mr. Mahanta, a signatory of the 1985 Assam Accord which provided for identification and deportation of illegal immigrants from the State, said: “We want the NRC in all States. First, we want an NRC in West Bengal, which is also affected by illegal immigration from Bangladesh as language and culture of West Bengal and Bangladesh are same.”
Mr. Mahanta, whose party Asom Gana Parishad is a part of the ruling alliance in Assam, also opposed the move to amend the six-decade-old Citizenship Act, seeking to grant citizenship to people from minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.