Congress targets BJP's 'double-standards' over reports of assurance to Dhaka on NRC

The Congress has termed "double-standards" the reported assurance of the Indian government to Bangladesh not to deport the non-NRC people, saying the BJP has consistently called such people infiltrators.

"If it is true that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured Bangladesh of not deporting those who names don't figure in the Assam National Register of Citizens, then it reflects BJP's politics of double-standards," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

"The BJP has one stand in Assam and another in Bangladesh. We do not know if Prime Minister Modi will remain silent on this issue as well much like in the Rafale scam," said Surjewala.

The Congress leader's reply was in reference to media reports quoting H.T. Imam, Political Adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, as saying that Modi has "personally assured" his counterpart of not sending back to Bangladesh those who are not included in the Assam NRC.

The Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah has repeatedly said that those not figuring in the NRC were "infiltrators" and are liable to be deported.

The BJP National Executive last month had passed a resolution on the (NRC) exercise in Assam declaring that the party and government would not allow India to be used as a haven for "infiltrators" and that each of these "will be identified, stripped of citizenship rights and deported."

--IANS

and/prs