Amidst a feeble voice against NRC and CAA here in Daltonganj, where a proposed rally against NRC & CAA was postponed on December 26 the BJP fielded its most eloquent two term sitting MP from Chatra Sunil Singh to pitch in for NRC and CAA.
Singh held a Press conference here on Friday and tried hard to explain that CAA is not directed against any Muslims of this country and there is no room for any fear and anxiety over it. He talked more about CAA and not NRC there in his press conference.
The MP first took the newsmen back into the Nehru — Liauqat pact to drive his point home that NRC, CAA are not the only brain works of the BJP rather these two had had the grains in the political firmament decades back too.
He said even the then Jan Sangh had envisaged to fish out the infiltrators from the country.
MP had a battery of senior BJP leaders with him on this occasion like Panki MLA Shashibhushan Mehta, district president Narender Pandey, veteran leaders like Prem Singh, Manoj K Singh, Bipin Bihari Singh and others to give him all support in this press conference.
Singh said, “I was one of the members of the Joint Parliamentary Board set up for CAB and I tell you the Congress member then on this Board had not raised even a whimper of protest against CAB report of which was readied after more than two years then but now a malicious and misleading campaign is on in some parts of the country where CAA is presented as a fearful thing for the Muslims which is far from reality.”
Asked if NPR (National population register) is a pre cursor to NRC to which MP Singh said, “Both are different. Let me tell you in times like 1951-52 there used to be Family Register. NPR is no step towards NRC.”
Again pestered that the then state Home Minister Rijuji had on the floor of the Parliament said that NPR is a step towards NRC to which Singh quite intelligently disengaging himself from any more embarrassment said “ I might not be present in the Parliament when Rijuji ji is said to have made this statement.”
The BJP MP had a tough time to explain as to why the suffering Tamils of Sri Lanka under the Sinhalese rule there be not given the same citizenship benefit here in India under CAA which comes too free to Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists etc coming from three countries Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The MP had a point that there is no any stir against CAA in many parts of the country but leaders who believe in ‘vote bank’ politics are stoking the fire most dangerously and enflaming the passion of the Muslims. He advised the Muslims to understand the real intention of such leaders.
Sources said the BJP has started too late to dispel fear and scorn for NRC and CAA while a big band of opposition parties has succeeded in driving this point home that NRC and CAA have anti constitutional spirit.