TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Accusing the Opposition of pursuing “divide and rule politics” and stoking violence over the amended citizenship law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has that the legislation and the National Register of Citizen (NRC) had nothing to do with Indian Muslims, as he sought to assuage their concerns amid widespread protests.
Strongly defending the contentious law, he said at a rally it was about giving rights to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries and did not snatch anybody’s rights, as he made an appeal for peace. On the NRC, Modi sought to allay apprehensions, especially among Muslims, saying his government has never discussed it since coming to power for the first time in 2014.
It has been discussed neither in Parliament nor in the Cabinet, he added.”Since my government first came to power in 2014, I want to tell 130 crore countrymen, there has never been a discussion on this NRC,” he said, noting that it was done only in Assam due to a Supreme Court order. He cited a Hindi idiom to liken the apprehensions about the NRC in a section of society to somebody getting scared after being told that a crow has cut his ears.
