New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor Friday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for retracting their stand on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and said the government was “hastening” to cover its tracks.
Addressing a press conference, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said, “The Prime Minister shockingly said in Delhi that there have been no discussions on NRC. We have seen how Amit Shah, both in the Parliament and during the course of his interviews, said that they (the BJP) will implement nationwide NRC. But now the government is hastening to cover its tracks.”
Tharoor was referring to Modi”s speech at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi last month in which he had said that no discussions were going on about NRC.
The Congress leader was responding to a question over the BJP accusing the Congress of misleading the people on the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the NRC.
Tharoor also launched Delhi Congress” campaign for the February 8 Assembly elections on Friday and sought suggestions and ideas for the party”s poll manifesto.
He said, “Dialogue is important… We need a manifesto that reflects people’s needs. A two way communication is a system that we are trying to bring so that people’s message to us is received,” Tharoor said.
To a question on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal not participating in any of the anti-CAA protests in the national capital, Tharoor said, “Kejriwal wants both pro and anti-CAA votes on his sides.”
Targeting Kejriwal for not meeting the students injured in police lathi charge in Jamia Millia Islamia and in the violent clashes in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Tharoor said, “I don”t know who asked the Chief Minister to stay quiet over violence on university campuses and not meet the injured students. Do we need such a helpless Chief Minister?”
On December 15, the police resorted to lathi charge in Jamia after protests over CAA turned violent. On January 15, masked miscreants unleashed violence in JNU, leaving over two dozen students injured.
