CPI MP moves privilege notice against Amit Shah in RS

CPI MP Binoy Viswam has given a notice to the Rajya Sabha for alleged breach of privilege by home minister Amit Shah. He also accused the Home Minister of misleading the house by making contradictory statements on the creation of an NRC.

New Delhi: Accusing Home Minister of Amit Shah of misleading the country over National Register of Citizen (NRC), CPI MP in Rajya Sabha, Binoy Viswam has submitted a notice seeking privilege motion against Shah in the Upper House.

"Yes, I have submitted a privilege motion notice in the Rajya Sabha because I think people of India have the right to know what is the reality. After speaking about NRC on several occasions, Home Minister Amit Shah backtracked from his statement," said Viswam in an exclusive interview to ETV Bharat.

He said that Shah was going ahead with his 'intentions', "But when Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a public rally that there was no discussion on NRC even in the union cabinet, the Home Minister backtracked from his previous statement."

Terming Shah's previous statement and subsequent backtrack as unfortunate, Viswam said, "Being the Home Minister of a country, he should be serious on the sensitive matter."

Viswam, in his notice submitted in the Rajya Sabha secretary-general, said that Shah had said on the floor of the House on November 20 that Assam would have a fresh round of NRC when it is implemented across the country and indicated his government's plan for a nationwide NRC.

"He has made a similar statement in the Lok Sabha on December 9. Further, he said that nationwide NRC is under active consideration of his government. But he changed his stand only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that there was no discussion on NRC," said Viswam.

"This party (BJP) has defined a new base for giving citizenship in the name of religion. This is very unfortunate," he said.

Criticising BJP, Viswam said that leaders of this party create deliberate controversies by giving different statements on the same topics.

"In fact, this is the agenda of the RSS. They keep confusing the people... how come there could not be any link between NRC and National Population Register (NPR)!" Viswam added. He was referring to Home Minister Amit Shah's recent statement that there is no link between NRC and NPR.

The Government has initiated a move to update the NPR, which the opposition termed as the first step for nationwide NRC.

Viswam is, however, hopeful that the House will take note of the notice.

According to the procedure, the Rajya Sabha secretariat will examine the notice to see if it is in order and put it up to the chairman who will decide if it is to be admitted or not.

However, at least 25 members should stand up in support of the admission of the notice before it is referred to as the Privileges Committee.

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