Assam NRC draft: NDA did what UPA proved unable, says Amit Shah

New Delhi, July 31 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Monday charged the UPA governments of not demonstrating the courage to identify and deport illegal workers from Assam according to an agreement which was marked by past Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.

Addressing a press conference, Shah said that by overlooking the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft in 2005, the Congress underplayed the safety and security of the Indian residents just to "play vote-bank politics".

"The agreement which was marked by Rajiv Gandhi, completely said that there will be an activity to oust unlawful Bangladeshi settlers from Assam. It's not my words. It was composed in the understanding which was marked by Mr. Gandhi."

"I need to ask the Congress party on how might they question this draft when it was begun by them. It is them who presented the NRC draft in 2005. The Congress did not have enough fearlessness to kick out the illicit Bangladeshi migrants. They cleared out the draft halfway in the wake of presenting it," he included.

The BJP chief further said that it is the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-drove NDA Government which kept taking a shot at the draft.

"There was a PIL filed by the citizens of Assam in the Supreme Court, following which, there was a period bound program on which, the NDA Government under Narendra Modi began dealing with it. The draft has, at last, been exhibited to the general population of Assam, in which, 40 lakh people have been esteemed ineligible. Also, the request was articulated by the Supreme Court and not the Government," Shah stressed.

The draft list, which was released on Monday, has forgotten almost 40 lakh people in Assam consolidating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore candidates. The rundown has been refreshed out of the blue since 1951, to represent unlawful relocation from adjacent Bangladesh.

The opposition parties, including, the Congress have been vociferous against the draft. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, yesterday, took to Twitter to censure the draft and said the "execution of the basic and highly sensitive exercise is tardy".