Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Wednesday, after Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah’s statements defending the National Registry of Citizens draft caused the Opposition erupt in protest.
Participating in a debate over the draft, BJP president Shah said it was a result of an accord signed at the time of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. He told the Congress kept the accord hanging for decades, claiming: “You did not have courage to implement it; we are doing it because we have the courage”.
He also accused the Congress of trying to “protect Bangladeshi migrants”.
At this, protests erupted from the Opposition, forcing the House to be adjourned until 11 am on Wednesday.
Earlier, the TMC on Tuesday forced adjournment of proceedings in the Rajya Sabha till noon over the issue of non-inclusion of over 40 lakh people in Assam’s National Register of Citizens.
Amid the uproar, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu told members that Home Minister Rajnath Singh would come to the House after attending to his duties in the Lok Sabha and reply to the “sensitive and serious matter”.
TMC leader Derek O’Brien wanted his notice under Rule 267, which calls for setting aside the day’s business to take up issue pressed, to be taken up.
TMC members, who had on Monday too led the protests that saw Rajya Sabha proceedings being adjourned without transacting any business, vociferously protested from the aisles.
As other members joined in, Naidu adjourned proceedings till noon.
Before doing so Naidu pointed out that the Home Minister had on his request come to the House on Monday but could not make a statement.
Maintaining that the issue at hand had a historical background as it was rooted in the Assam Accord, he said on Tuesday that he had asked the home minister to be come to the House.
The home minister, he said, has agreed to do so once he finishes replying to questions in the Lok Sabha.
Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad asked if members would be given an opportunity to seek clarification after the home minister made his statement.
Naidu replied in the affirmative.
Out of the 3.29 crore applicants, 2.89 crore have been found eligible for inclusion in the complete draft of NRC that was released in Guwahati on Monday. This meant that the names of 40.07 lakh have been left out.
‘Dividing the nation’
Repeating arguments he had already made in his statement in Parliament at a press conference, Shah accused the opposition of trying to “divide the nation” and “playing vote-bank politics”.
“Have you forgotten what your grandmother Indira Gandhi said on Bangladeshi immigrants,” he asked in a question addressed to Congres president Rahul Gandhi.
Shah said political parties must make their stands clear on the subject.
“Even when we were in Opposition our stance on the issue was the same as it was when we are in power…Political parties need to clear stance on issue of Bangladeshi infiltrators. It is a matter related to country’s security. People of the country also have some human rights, ” he said, criticising the Opposition, in particular, the Trinamool Congress.
“NRC is for India’s security. The BJP is clear that the Supreme Court’s order should be implemented, both in letter and spirit,” he claimed.