By Nava J Thakuria
Bharat Raksha Manch (Save India Forum, a non-government organisation) reiterates its demand for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) with the base year 1951 across the country. The recently concluded its national executive meeting at Jammu (J&K) also extended support to the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
The nationalist forum also appealed for peace in Manipur which has been facing relentless turmoil since 3 May last. Graced by BRM national president Satyanarayan Jetia, working president Bhusan Dewan, national coordinator Suryakanta Kelkar with others, the meeting also observed that a correct nationwide NRC could have prevented the Manipur mayhem.
Speakers expressed condolences over the demise of over 150 people from different ethnic communities of Manipur due to the conflicts which also left more than 75 individuals seriously injured. The miscreants burnt over 6000 houses rendering thousands of families homeless, who are now taking shelter in refugee camps. Till date, nearly 200 temples and other religious places have been destroyed and 80% of indigenous Meitei population suffer the most. They appealed to all stakeholders to exercise restraint while in indulging violence as it never solve any problem.
In another resolution, the meeting urged the Union government to allow the temples across India to be managed by the Sanatani Hindus as being done by the Muslims and Christians while taking care of their religious places like mosques and churches respectively. It also emphasized on protecting the helpless Hindu refugees under Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) guidelines, who came to India from Pakistan and Bangladesh to escape religious atrocities in both the Muslim-majority countries.
Recently, the Assam unit of BRM organised a press meet in the city, where State unit president Dwijendra N Barthakur and its adviser Hitesh Devsarma brief the media about the fate of NRC Assam draft, which was published in 2019.
Devsarma, a former State NRC coordinator, who personally lodged two complaints against his predecessor Prateek Hajela claiming inclusion of millions of Bangladeshi migrants’ names in the NRC through tempered softwares. He also alleged that Hajela was personally involved with a scam involving Rs 260 crores in the process of NRC updation for Assam.
They also demanded that the data entry operators, who were engaged with the process (seemingly under the supervision of India’s apex court), should be paid the outstanding amount of money by the concerned agencies.
The NRC authority spent a sum of Rs 1600 crore in the four-year long exercise where the system integrator (Wipro Limited) illegally engaged one sub-contractor to supply the temporary workers. They were paid only Rs 5500 (to 9100, which is below the country’s basic minimum wage as mentioned by the Comptroller and Auditor General) per month.
