Amid widespread protests over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), BJD spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb, during an interview with Biswa Bhuasan Mohapatra of Orissa POST revealed how rumour-mongering has led to the protests while allaying the fear that NRC would not be conducted in Odisha
BJD has decided not to support NRC? Why the party has taken this move suddenly?
Opposing National Register of Citizens (NRC) is not sudden. We have expressed our views in the Parliament during various debates. Our party supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has made it clear so that people in Odisha should not worry, because it is not going to be implemented in Odisha. Odisha has very low Muslim population and BJD is opposing NRC because we believe in secularism.
Has the decision been taken in view of the nation-wide protests including Odisha?
See, due to rumour-mongering some people have misunderstood the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and resorted to protests. For that our CM has cleared the air. The Act has nothing to do with our citizens. The Act aims at providing citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who have been living in India without documents. They will be granted fast-track Indian citizenship in six years. So far, 12 years of residence has been the standard criteria for naturalisation. These minority groups have come to India escaping persecution in Muslim-majority nations. This law is meant for protecting them.
The Biju Janata Dal has supported CAA and opposed NRC. Are these not correlated?
CAA and NRC are two different things. The CAA is meant for the foreign nationals while NRC is for our Indian citizens. With the implementation of the CAA, refugees staying in various parts of the country will be able to get government benefits.
The BJD has been supporting the BJP government in Parliament on many issues. Does not it appear like there is a secret deal between the parties?
There is no open or secrete deal between the BJD and BJP. That is a speculation of Opposition party and the media. We are providing issue-based support to the Central government (whoever may be in power) for the larger interest of our nation and Odisha. During UPA government also we have supported many Bills and issues in the Parliament.
