BJP Using NRC, CAB to Unleash Reign of Fear and Distrust: Yechury

Kolkata: Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury Thursday accused Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh (RSS) of trying to destroy the country's secular fabric and letting loose a "reign of fear and distrust" across the country by implementing the contentious National Register of Citizens and Citizens Amendment Bill.

Addressing a programme to commemorate 100 years of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Yechury said BJP was trying to propagate its ideology of Hindu nationalism by replacing the principles of Indian nationalism, which had its roots in the Independence movement.

"The communal forces have increased their activities by leaps and bounds and they are trying to flare communal passions across the country. Now the BJP is taking about NRC and CAB. It will now decide who are citizens and who are not," he said.

The CPI was formed on October 17, 1920 at Tashkent in Uzbekistan, then part of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Yechury said the updation of the NRC in the rest of the country after Assam is against the interests of the people as BJP intends to use it for its "divisive communal agenda".

"The BJP government is talking about extending the NRC process in the whole of India. This is uncalled for and it is being done only with the aim of targeting certain sections of people and to create polarisation," he said.

He criticised the BJP government at the Centre for omitting Muslims from the list of religious denominations eligible for getting citizenship in the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and called it a "complete violation" of the Constitution.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill provides for according Indian citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after seven years of residence in India instead of 12 years currently even if they do not possess any document.

Expressing concern over alleged attempts by BJP and several other Hindutva outfits to build up communal frenzy over NRC and CAB, the former Rajya Sabha MP said the saffron party sees the sharpening of communal polarization as the only way to consolidate its Hindutva vote bank.

It has been acknowledged since Independence that the unity of India lies in its diversity. The BJP-RSS cannot tolerate the diversity and federal principle and want to create a Hindu Rashtra, he said.