JDU leader Prashant Kishor's wife is from Assam. He has been a vocal critic of the NRC. (File)
Amid countrywide protests against the amended Citizenship Act, Janata Dal United leader Prashant Kishor today tweeted "ways to stop the implementation" of the new citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens as he attacked the ruling BJP. His consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) has been widely credited for helping the BJP to power in 2014.
"Two effective ways to stop the implementation of #CAA_NRC are; (1) Keep protesting peacefully by raising your voice on all platforms, & (2) Ensure most if not ALL of the 16 Non BJP CMs say NO to NRC in their states. Everything else important as they may is largely tokenism," the 42-year-old poll strategist-turned-Janata Dal United leader tweeted. His party is an ally of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the centre.
Earlier this week, JDU president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Mr Kishor's boss, had indicated that he will not implement the NRC in Bihar, adding to BJP's trouble. "Kahe ka NRC (What NRC)?" he asked when reporters questioned him on the issue.
The remark came days after Mr Kishor, whose wife is from Assam, had openly opposed his party's support for the new citizenship law. After a tense meeting with the JDU chief last week, however, he told journalists that Nitish Kumar had assured him there would be no NRC in Bihar.
On Thursday, he told NDTV the CAA-National Register of Citizens (NRC) combination was discriminatory. "The party (referring to JDU) has always said that there is no need for NRC in Bihar and he (Chief Minister Nitish Kumar) assured me there is no reason to change this stance," he said.
On Saturday, Mr Kishor also launched an attacked on the Congress the party's absence "in the citizens' fight against CAA-NRC". "Congress is not on (the) streets and its top leadership has been largely absent in the citizens' fight against CAA-NRC. The least (the) party could do i(s) to make ALL Congress CMs join other CMs who have said that they will not allow NRC in their states," he wrote. He shared a video by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi where she had criticised the citizenship law and crackdown on protests against it.
Violent protests have broken out across the country since the citizenship amendment act cleared parliament last week.
The new citizenship law offers citizenship to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The worry is that undocumented Muslims will bear the brunt of the NRC that would require people to produce proof of citizenship.