Oppn to link CAB, NRC against BJP with stats piled up

With numbers stacked against it in both Houses of Parliament, the Opposition is now planning to wage a perception battle on controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), by linking it with the contentious exercise of National Register of Citizens (NRC) to put the ruling BJP in a spot.

The view among the Opposition parties is that the BJP could push the Bill - which is likely to be introduced in Lok Sabha on Monday and take it up for discussion the next day - through both the Houses but they would have to prepare ground against the Bill, which they believe is "poisonous".

The Bill, if passed by Lok Sabha by Tuesday, is likely to come up in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Floor leaders of Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha met twice on Thursday to firm up a strategy and have agreed to put out the "correct perspective" against BJP's "factually incorrect and dubious" attempt to "cloud the whole conversation" on the issue before it it is introduced in Parliament.

While the passage of the Bill the Lok Sabha, which seeks to provide citizenship to non-Muslim refugees in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, is a foregone conclusion, the BJP is also confident of winning the battle in Rajya Sabha, with the support of parties like BJD, TRS and YSR Congress. To the comfort of the BJP, allies like JD(U) and AIADMK, which had reservations earlier, have also come on board.

At the meeting held at Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Trinamool Congress' Derek O'Brien and Saugata Roy, as well as Congress' Assam MP Ripun Bora, briefed other leaders about the intricacies of the Bill. The meeting was attended by AAP's Sanjay Singh, Samajwadi Party's Javed Ali Khan, CPM's T K Rangarajan, CPI's Binoy Vishwam, NCP's Praful Patel and Vandana Chavan, DMK's Tiruchi Siva and RJD's Manoj Jha among others.

A senior Opposition leader said, "whether 'A' will vote in favour, whether 'B' will vote against does not matter. We need to give the correct perspective to the people."

Opposition sources said the Bill is aimed at excluding Muslims as part of the BJP's plan of communal polarisation and they want it before the NRC exercise they plan for the entire country. The Opposition leaders also referred to BJP's demand that the NRC exercise held in Assam be repeated after over 11 lakh Hindus found their names in the list.

Interacting with reporters later, O'Brien said the provisions that provide exemption for Sixth Schedule areas and those under Inner Line Permit regime lays down "multiple standards" for citizenship for one country. "Terms and conditions change when it suits BJP. This is a cheap political stunt," he said, while emphasising that the Bill was "anti-tribal".

"This Bill is humiliating and insulting to Ambedkar and other founding fathers of Constitution," he said.