Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre not to take any coercive action against those whose names are missing from the final draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Asking the Centre to frame standard operating procedure (SOP) to deal with claims and objections regarding the NRC, the apex court said that the SOP should be placed before it by August 16 for approval.
Earlier in the day, the Rajya Sabha witnessed ruckus over the NRC issue with the opposition asking the government to tread cautiously and not play politics on the issue of NRC.
BJP chief Amit Shah, however, accused the Congress of not showing courage to identify illegal migrants in Assam.
Participating in a discussion which was taken up by doing away with the Question Hour, Shah said the NRC was an exercise which was to be conducted as part of the Assam Accord signed by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhion August 14, 1985 after the movement in the state went out of control leading to death of some protesters.
Noting that the NRC was the spirit of the accord which sought to identify illegal migrants and prepare a list of Indian citizens, he said the exercise was now being conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court.
“NRC is being conducted on the SC order. There are 40 lakh people (missing in the list) ... Whom do you want to save? You want to save illegal Bangaldesis,” he posed. He said “this was the Congress PM’s initiative. He (Rajiv Gandhi) did not have the courage. We have courage and we are doing it.”
Shah’s remarks provoked noisy protests by the Opposition members led by those from the Congress and the TMC. The House was first adjourned by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for about 10 minutes during the debate and then for the day.
(With agency inputs)
