The Illegals Debate

The Assam citizens’ register crisis has spilled into neighbouring West Bengal with both the TMC and BJP playing votebank politics over the issue

- Romita Datta

Mamata Banerjee was the first to speak out in defence of the four million people left in limbo in neighbouring Assam following the Supreme Court-ordered publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). “It’s a plan to throw out Bengalis and Biharis, whose names have been removed on the basis of surnames,” the West Bengal chief minister claimed at a news conference, minutes after the numbers were released on July 30. She accused the BJP-led Assam government of deliberately targeting Muslims.

Clearly expecting the diatribe, state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh responded with a series of demonstrations demanding a similar exercise in Bengal. “If voted to power, we will have a separate NRC for Bengal and push illegal migrants out of the country. Those supporting them will also be thrown out,” he warned, claiming there were over 15 million illegal Bangladeshis in the state. BJP national president Amit Shah accused Banerjee and the rest of the Opposition of playing votebank politics at the cost of national security. “Apart from the BJP and BJD, not a single party has come forward and said that there was place for illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the country... and all this for the sake of votebank politics,” Shah said in Delhi on July 31.