‘NRC must reach West Bengal, as it has become mother of counter-federalism’

An exercise meant to determine illegal migrants in Assam, has turned into a political controversy with both the Opposition parties and the ruling BJP accusing each other of playing politics over the issue. In an interview to Yojna Gusai, Rajya Sabha’s nominated member and RSS thinker Rakesh Sinha calls Mamata Banerjee a “Naxalite” and says the Opposition is trying to give a communal colour to the Supreme Court-monitored exercise.

The NRC seems to be the latest bone of contention between the government and the Opposition parties. The Opposition parties have accused the government and the ruling party of indulging in “divide and rule” policy through it and also threatened that it could lead to a “civil war”.
The Opposition has been blatantly indulging in distortion of facts and propagating misinformation systematically for the sake of vote-bank politics. By doing this, they are protecting and patronising infiltrators. In fact, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is betraying her own commitment, which she had so vehemently demonstrated in Parliament in 2005. Ms Banerjee also crossed a line by threatening a “civil war”. By this threat, she has identified infiltrators with Indian Muslims when the entire issue of NRC is “Indians vs foreigners” and these foreigners can be of any religion. Everyone knows that a civil war is a direct attack on the Constitution of India and it is for the first time in the history of independent and modern India that a person holding a constitutional post spoke like a Naxalite.

Why do you call her a Naxalite?
She is a power-hungry politician who is also ultra ambitious. Ms Banerjee is trying to grab the Opposition space which is witnessing a vacuum. Her intention is to emerge as the Leader of the Opposition bloc as Congress president Rahul Gandhi has failed to take that position. However, she is in delusion of her aggressiveness and even other Opposition parties have realised that she is unfit for governance and the evidence is the state of West Bengal.

She came to New Delhi to project herself as the leader of Indian Muslim and misused an issue whose only aim is to find out who are the real citizens of this country. She openly threatened of a civil war, and surprisingly, no Opposition party objected to it; not even the Left parties who miss no opportunity to say “Constitution is under threat” for small incidents.

Both the Opposition and the BJP have accused each other of playing politics over the issue.
Everyone saw in Parliament who was playing politics. The Rajya Sabha was disrupted and the Trinamul Congress-led Opposition played a destructive role for three days. Almost 10 members from the Opposition parties spoke without interruption from the ruling benches even when they levelled all kinds of allegations and accusations, including against Hindutva and the RSS. They alleged that 2014 was the year when divisive politics began but even then no one from the treasury benches objected, as the issue being discussed was sensitive and very important. But when BJP president Amit Shah began his speech on behalf of the ruling party and placed before the House the legitimate fact that it was the Assam Accord signed by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi which is the soul of the NRC and that the Congress lacked courage to implement it, they started shouting and did not allow Mr Shah to speak.

Did he speak anything which was unparliamentary or was threatening or challenging? Not only did they not allow Mr Shah to finish, they did not even allow home minister Rajnath Singh to speak. Instead, they demanded that the Prime Minister should make a statement. But when finally the home minister replied, nobody could question the government’s stand.

Mr Singh assured the Parliament that no Indian citizen will be left out of the NRC. So all that happened in the House earlier was part of the Trinamul Congress-led Opposition’s strategy to disrupt. But what it proved was that Ms Banerjee has taken the form of an anarchist.

There was a strategy behind Mr Shah not being allowed to keep his party’s view during the debate in the Rajya Sabha?
Absolutely. Mr Shah was placing his party’s stand on the issue for which the Chair had given him the permission. But Opposition members were afraid of his speech as he was very assertive on the ideological dimension and also his clarity on the NRC had exposed the Opposition’s hollow criticism.

No one (Opposition members) mentioned what was the reason behind the NRC and about the agitation, which Assam witnessed in the early 1980s against illegal migrants. No one mentioned about the Assam Accord.

But some BJP members want the NRC to be implemented in other states as well, including West Bengal.
Well, the NRC in Assam is imperative, but it’s more imperative in West Bengal. Due to the Assam agitation of 1980, there has been a growing index of consciousness against the infiltrators and their impact on the state’s demography, culture society and economy.

At least, the Assamese have been able to resist their impact, but in West Bengal, due to protracted patronage by the Congress, the CPI(M) and the Trinamul Congress, the civil society is facing problems with regard to infiltrators and (their) criminal activities. Therefore, the NRC must reach West Bengal, which has become the mother of counter-federalism.