Minority organisation's rally in city against Assam NRC

A minority organisation took out a rally in Kolkata Thursday protesting against the updation of the Assam NRC and accused the BJP government at the Centre of trying to take away citizenship of Muslims.

The protestors accused the BJP-led government in Assam of "deliberately omitting" Bengalis and people from the minority community from the complete draft of NRC that was published in the last week of July.

They shouted slogans against the BJP government both in Assam and at the Centre, carried placards denouncing them and demanded immediate withdrawal of the Assam NRC.

"The Assam NRC is a ploy to single out Muslims and take away their citizenship. We want this NRC (exercise) to be withdrawn," Mohammad Kamruzzaman, secretary of the West Bengal Minority Youth Federation, said.

"The criteria that has been set is not only absurd but also impractical. They are asking for documents of our forefathers. Have the BJP leaders preserved the documents of their forefathers," he added.

Kamruzzaman alleged that names of lakhs of Bengalis have been omitted from the complete NRC.

"It has been done deliberately. We demand that the names be included in the list as they are also Indians. You can't make a person a refugee in his own country," he added.