GUWAHATI, Dec 1 - The Congress on Sunday reiterated its stand against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, saying it will oppose the proposed legislation �by all means� at its disposal.
A meeting of the working committee of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) passed a resolution in this regard.
The meeting, held under the chairmanship of APCC president Ripun Bora at Rajiv Bhawan here, deliberated on the issues of CAB and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
�The BJP-led Central government is getting ready to table the CAB in the ongoing winter session of Parliament. The State is witnessing massive protests against the CAB. The Congress maintains its earlier position on the proposed Bill. Identification and deportation of foreigners will have to be carried out as per the base year fixed in the Assam Accord. The NRC was updated taking into account the base year of 1971 as per the Assam Accord. If the CAB is passed, it will make the entire NRC update process redundant, and will also violate provisions of the Assam Accord. The Congress will continue to oppose the proposed Bill in the coming days with all means at its disposal,� said a communique issued by the APCC after the meeting.
However, taking into account the �ground reality�, the Congress said it will urge the Centre to formulate a comprehensive policy for giving shelter and security to the �people of undivided India� who were compelled to migrate to India due to religious persecution and discrimination in their countries.
It also pointed out that the final NRC does not contain the names of a large number of people from linguistic minorities who possess pre-1971 refugee certificates, migration certificates and citizenship certificates.
�It is very unfortunate that despite there being a very specific directive by the Supreme Court, the BJP government has not deemed it fit to issue verification reports to these linguistic minorities, resulting in their exclusion from the NRC,� said the Congress communique, calling upon the government to issue such verification reports.
The APCC working committee meeting also agreed that the NRC should not contain names of any foreigner who entered the country after March 24, 1971, and should not exclude any genuine Indian citizen. The party also called for fast-tracking the cases of D-voters and of people lodged in detention camps.
