Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Chowdhury has expressed apprehensions about his future citizenship status going by the fact that his family too hails from Bangladesh and considering the “vindictive approach” of the Central Government in its plans regarding the implementation of the National Register of Citizens.
Warning that the Hindus will have to bear the brunt of NRC more than any other community, the senior Member of Parliament from Behrampore on Sunday said at the end of an anti-NRC rally in Kolkata that “no one will be spared. More so the Hindus… The Hindus will be more affected by NRC than any other community,” citing the example of Assam where more than 11 lakh Hindu Bengalis had been targeted by the NRC.
Warning the citizens against “devastating impact of the proposed Citizens (amendment) Bill and NRC,” in Bengal, Chowdhury, a highly vocal politician with a long history of struggle both against the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress, said a whole cross-section of the society will be affected by the NRC that the BJP was planning to implement in Bengal. “The NRC (BJ) they are planning will target every section of the society be it a celebrity or a common man,” he said apprehending the torment his own family might have to go through on account of political victimisation in the name of NRC as “my family too hails from Bangladesh.”
He said “I openly acknowledge that I too am a refugee in that sense as my father had migrated from that side of the border to India. I am also apprehensive of my citizenship future on account of the political persecution that one is expected to suffer in the name of NRC,” he maintained.
“Will they throw me out? Will they throw my family out of India?” he asked saying however that the BJP will not be allowed to amend the Constitution the way it likes. “Our Constitution has been drafted in such a manner that it cannot be amended the way the BJP wants it to be,” he said adding his party would continue to fight against the saffron outfit’s “nefarious designs.”
Meanwhile, in a separate development State Congress leader Sanmay Banerjee who was arrested for allegedly violating Cyber laws was released on bail on Sunday.
Banerjee was arrested for allegedly writing “defamatory statements” against some of senior Trinamool Congress leaders. All the opposition parties including the Left, Congress and the BJP had raised their voices against Banerjee’s arrest.
Accusing the police for arresting Sanmay Banerjee for circulating posts against TMC leaders, Adhir Chowdhury said the Congress leaders arrest was a classic example of intolerance of the highest order.