Prashant Kishor takes a jibe at BJP, calls NRC 'Demonetization of Citizenship'

JDU senior leader and poll strategist Prashant Kishor continues to raise his voice against the BJP over the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC) and has called the exercise “demonetisation of citizenship”. Taking to Twitter on Sunday morning, in an apparent reference to BJP government's decision to demonetize Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes in 2016, Kishor made the remark. He said the biggest sufferers from the NRC would be the poor and the marginalised. 

'Invalid till you prove otherwise'

During a closed-door meeting with JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Saturday, party vice-president Prashant Kishor offered to resign. However, Kumar refused to accept the resignation. The Chief Minister also assured Kishor that the legislation will not be implemented in Bihar after the latter had publicly criticised the party's support to the new citizenship law. The political strategist, however, said that he stood by the "views I have expressed". He also said the amended Citizenship Act was, per se, not a "major cause for worry" but it could be problematic in combination with the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC).

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'...it could turn into a lethal combo'

The law allows for granting citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, while the NRC exercise would compile the names of all genuine Indian citizens. On Friday, he said that while the Citizenship Amendment Act had passed the parliament, it was now upon the state CMs to clarify their stance. Stating Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh's stance against the Act, he added that all other CMs should clarify their stance alluding to Nitish Kumar.  On Wednesday, Kishor had tweeted the legislation "could turn into a lethal combo" (with NRC) to systematically discriminate and even prosecute people based on religion.

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