Is the Modi government so rattled by the countrywide protests that cost more than 20 lives that the Prime Minister was forced to make a public volte-face by asserting that a pan-India NRC has never been even discussed since his government came to power in 2014 ? This not only contradicts the repeated categorical assertions by his Home Minister Amit Shah, it is also in direct conflict with President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to the MPs after the 17th Lok Sabha was constituted. Such customary address by the President is a policy declaration of the government of the day. How does the Prime Minister reconcile this contradiction on such a sensitive issue? Similarly, Mr. Modi’s denial about the existence of detention camps anywhere in the country is factually incorrect. His own junior Minister’s reply in the Rajya Sabha had admitted that instructions had been issued to all States for setting up detention camps. Was it then fair on the part of the Prime Minister to blame the Opposition?
S.K. Choudhury,
Bengaluru
