Will resign if one person who has not applied for NRC gets citizenship: Assam CM

Guwahati: The Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that he will be the first to resign if one person, who has not applied for the National Register of Citizens (NRC), gets citizenship.

The Chief Minister’s comment comes after protests erupted across the state with opposition parties flaying the BJP government at the Centre for implementing the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) on Monday

The CAA has paved the way for granting citizenship to undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

“I am a son of Assam and if a single person who has not applied for NRC gets citizenship, I will be the first to resign”, the chief minister said on the sidelines of a programme at Sivasagar.

The anti-CAA protesters are claiming that lakhs of people will enter the state after the implementation of the CAA.

“If this happens, I will be the first to protest,” he said.

There is nothing new about the CAA as it was enacted earlier, the chief minister said, adding that “now the time has come for application on the portal.”

“The data on the portal will speak now, and it will become clear whether the claims of those opposing the Act stand factually correct or not,” Sarma said.