Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday said that the government will ensure the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Jharkhand.
Chauhan, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in charge of elections in Jharkhand, blamed undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh for demographic changes in the state adding that the population of Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the Santhal Pargana has reduced from 44% to 28%.
Jharkhand will go to polls later this year, the date of which is yet to be announced.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Chauhan said state chief minister Hemant Soren and his Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) have fostered undocumented immigrants for vote bank politics.
“This election is not only for forming government or appointing a new chief minister. This election will be to save Jharkhand. We are committed for the protection of beti, mati and roti (daughter, state and resources),” he said.
“Illegal immigrants are getting Aadhaar cards, which is a dangerous trend for the country and young girls are being trapped by their youth to wrest control of their land,” he added.
A process carried out in Assam to detect undocumented immigrants led to the exclusion of around two million people from the NRC in 2018. The passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) a year later to fast-track the citizenship process for non-Muslims, who have entered India from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh before December 31, 2014, triggered protests across the country.
Opponents of the law insisted it was discriminatory and unconstitutional as it left out the Muslims and linked faith to citizenship in a secular country. They said it could result in the expulsion or detention of the Muslims unable to provide the documentation if the law is seen in the context of a proposed pan-India NRC. The government has maintained that all-India NRC was not on the anvil anytime soon.