Privilege notice to Shah for misleading Parl on NRC

CPI Parliamentary Group leader Binoy Viswam on Tuesday submitted a privilege notice against Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing him of misleading the Parliament on National Register of Citizens (NRC) and thus posing a "threat not only to the Constitution of India but also to the safety and security of the people".

Viswam, a Rajya Sabha MP, sent his letter to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat bringing attention to Shah's statements in the Upper House and Lok Sabha and government's responses in Parliament and the Home Minister's remarks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion that there was no discussion about NRC in the past five years.

He said Shah responded in Rajya Sabha during Question Hour on November 20 last year that the NRC would be conducted across India and it will be done again in Assam, "thereby indicating a plan for the implementation of a nationwide NRC process". He also referred to Shah's speech in Lok Sabha on 9 December 2019 when he "emphatically stated this very idea".

However, Viswam said, Shah changed his position on NRC after the Prime Minister publicly stated that his government had not yet taken a decision on the implementation of a nationwide NRC.

"This sort of back and forth statements by the Home Minister on the implementation of the NRC is causing anguish and anxiety among the citizens of India who are already disturbed by the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act. Such contradictory statements are a clear breach of privilege and an attempt to misled both the Houses of Parliament and the people of India," he said.

"These misrepresentations by the Home Minister pose a threat not only to the Constitution of India but also to the safety and security of the people," Viswam said before adding that over 20 people have lost their lives in the ensuing protests against Citizenship Amendment Act, National Population Register and NRC.