Digvijaya Singh questions implementation of NRC; comments on Cong Seva Dal booklet

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has urged BJP to clarify whether it was planning to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the country or not. The former Chief Minister had earlier slammed the BJP government's ministers over the NRC, as according to him it was due to the Bill that every Indian would have to prove their citizenship.

"We only want to know about NRC. Prime Minister Narendra Modiji says something while Amit Shah and JP Naddaji are saying something else. We want to know whether BJP is planning to bring the NRC or not?" Singh told reporters on Saturday.

He further acknowledged the questions related to the contentious Congress Seva Dal booklet claiming a physical relationship between Nathuram Godse and Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. A booklet being distributed in Bhopal at the national training camp of Seva Dal on Thursday has made several claims against Veer Savarkar. Republic TV had accessed the booklet titled ‘How brave was Veer Savarkar?’ that contains many controversial portions. 

"First of all it is wrong to make comments on anyone's personal life, but the Congress Seva Dal has not written anything. The people should question Dominique Lapierre about it," he said.

The Congress party had come under attack from the BJP, Shiv Sena, and other parties over the booklet. The grandson of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar had also urged the Madhya Pradesh government to ban the Congress booklet and requested it to register a case in this regard.

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'Made clear to Bangladesh-NRC an internal affair, CAA-NRC not connected': India

Clarifying on India's stance and its communication with neighbouring Bangladesh regarding the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Ministry of External Affairs has said on Thursday that they have spoken to Bangladesh. MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar in the weekly briefing said that  India has made it clear to Bangladesh that NRC was an internal issue. When asked about the repercussions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he explained that NRC has nothing to do with the amended citizenship law.

He said, "We have explained our position to Bangladesh government on NRC that this is an internal matter of India. All these reports which cannot be verified is difficult to comment upon."

"CAA and NRC has nothing to do with each other. NRC is mandated and monitored by the SC and also most of the countries have accepted that this is an internal matter of India," he added.

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(With Inputs from ANI)