Statements made on NRC : A Fact-Check
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 31, 2019
The Prime Minister made some statements on NRC in a rally he addressed on 22 December. Here is a fact-check on some of his statements.
Addressinga rally in Ram Leela Maidan on 22 December 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modistated that there has been no discussion on NRC in his government’s tenure atthe centre.
Mediaand many from the civil society were quick to point out the mention of NRC byAmit Shah and other cabinet ministers on various forums. This is one ofstatements of the Prime Minister which contradicts the statements made by himand his government earlier.  Not onlyhim, various political parties and their leaders across the political spectrum havechanged their stand vis-à-vis CAA & NRC as noted in one of our earlier
stories.  In this story,we fact check the various claims made about NRC & CAA by the Prime Minister& others.
Claim
1 : No discussion in the Government regarding NRC
Duringthe speech at Ram Leela Maidan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that , therehas been no discussion in his government about NRC since he took over in 2014. Hefurther goes onto say that the NRC in Assam was implemented as per thedirection of Supreme Court.  Here is the video link to this part of the speech.
In spite of the claim that his government has not discussed anything relating to NRC , there have been multiple instances where members of his government as well as Bharatiya Janata party have alluded to NRC.
a. The question of a nationwide NRC was asked multiple times in parliament. In their response, the government has been non-committal of carrying out NRC across the country.
However,Union Home Minister Amit Shah, told the Rajya Sabha on 20 November 2019 thatNRC would be carried across pan-India. The Bharatiya Janata Party on its officialTwitter handle  tweeted his statement made in the Rajya Sabha.
b. Furthermore, addressing an election rally in Jharkhand ahead of the second phase of State elections, Amit Shah stated that NRC would be implemented to remove all the infiltrators from the country and this would be done prior to 2024 General elections. Here is a video link to that part of speech at the election rally.
c. TheBJP also tweeted on 11 April 2019, an excerpt from Amit Shah’s speech , which stated that NRCwould be implemented in the entire country. The tweet further states that allthe infiltrators except for Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists would be removed fromthe country. This tweet is deleted from their twitter account. Factly was ableto retrieved it from the web
archives.
TheBJP’s manifesto for 2019 elections, states that NRC would be implemented in a phased manner inother parts of the country. This is stated under the head ‘CombatingInfiltration’ on Page 11 of the manifesto.
BJP’sworking president JP Nadda has on 19 December 2019 stated
that Citizenship Law will be implemented as well as NRCwould be brought in. He made this statement at an event where he met refugeesfrom Afghanistan.  Here is a video
link to that statement.
Hence,there have been multiple instances where in BJP officially and the cabinetministers referred to the implementation of NRC across the country. PM’s claimthat NRC was not discussed by his government also does not stand true sinceHome Minister Amit Shah has gone on record in Rajya Sabha saying that anationwide NRC would be implemented. To conclude, the PM’s statement that NRCwas never discussed by his government is misleading.
Claim: NRC was never discussed by his government since I took over as PM in 2014 – PM Narendra Modi
Fact: On multiple occasions, BJP leaders as well as Cabinet Ministers referred to a nationwide NRC. Hence, the claim of PM Narendra Modi is Misleading.
Claim
2: There are no detention centres
Multipletimes during his speech on 22 December 2019, PM Narendra Modi claimed thatthere were no detention centres and that this is a lie which is beingpropagated by the opposition, specifically Indian National Congress.  Here is the video link to the statementgiven by Narendra Modi.
Furthermore,in an interview
to ANI, Amit Shah states that they have not created any newdetention centers under the their government.
On27November 2019, Dr. Santanu Sen asked a question in Rajya Sabha aboutthe lack of facilities in detention centres.
Respondingto this question, the government stated that as per the information provided by State Government of Assam, there are 6Detention Centres in Assam as on 22 November 2019 and that 988 foreigners arelodged in them.
Thisis contrary to the PM’s statement that there are no detention centres in thecountry.
EvenAmit Shah’s statement that there are no new detention centres, doesn’t matchwith the answers provided by the government in parliament. These answers providea completely different picture.
Answeringa question in Lok Sabha on 10 March 2015, the government stated
that the State of Assam has set up 3 detentions centres.
However,as seen in the answer on 27 November 2019 there are 6 detention centres,implying that new detention centres have come up after 2015.
Furthermore,responding to another
question in Rajya Sabha on 11 December 2019, it was stated thatthe Government has approved a new detention centres at Matia, Goalpara, Assamat an estimated cost of Rs. 46.51 crores.
Answering another
question in Rajya Sabha on 24 July 2019, the government statedthat a ‘Model Detention Centre Manual’ is circulated by the Central governmentto all the States & UTs which provides a formal procedure for setting up ofdetention/holding centres.
Further,there have been news reports of detention centres being built in various partsof the countries.  As per few of these news
reports, CIDCO ( City and Industrial DevelopmentCorporation), received a request from Maharashtra’s government.
Thereis also latest
news that the current Chief Minister of Maharashtra,Uddhav Thackeray scrapped the decision made by the earlier government to builda detention centre. The latest statement would imply that the work towards buildinga detention centre was initiated.
Meanwhile,there have been media reports that the government of Karnataka recently  opened the first detention centre for illegal immigrants, near Bengaluru. The HomeMinister of Karnataka has earlier
in October 2019 confirmed the building of detention centres forillegal immigrants.
However,recently the Home minister of Karnataka, stated
that the detention centre would only be used for illegalimmigrants who are accused of crimes.
Toconclude,the statement made by Prime Minister that there are nodetention centres in India as well as the statement made by Amit Shah thatthere are no new detention centres being built is False, as the answersof the government in both the houses provide information not only of theexistence of detention centres but also of the plans to build new ones.
Claim: There are no detention centers in India – PM Narendra Modi.
Fact: The answers of the government in both the houses of parliament provide information not only of the existence of detention centres but also of the plans to build new ones. Hence, the claim of PM Narendra Modi is False.
Claim
3: Dr. Manmohan Singh has earlier supported CAB
BJP’sworking president JP Nadda, also a member of Rajya Sabha, speaking on
CAB in Rajya Sabha stated that Dr. Manmohan Singh hassupported Citizen Amendment Bill earlier.
JPNadda made the statement in reference to what Dr. Manmohan Singh spoke in theparliament on 18 December 2003. Based on this, JP Nadda asked Congress not tochange its earlier stand on CAB because they are now in opposition and requestedthem to support the CAB.  Here is the video
link of what Dr. Manmohan Singh said in 2003.
Thisvideo has been shared on various social media platforms as well on mainstreammedia.
The verbatim statement of Dr. Manmohan Singh is in the screenshot below.
Thisis part
of a speech by Dr. Singh during the debate in Rajya Sabha onCitizenship Amendment Bill, 2003. The 2003 bill varies from that of CitizenAmendment Bill -2019 in multiple aspects.
The Citizen
Amendment Bill -2003, introduced some changes to the Citizenship act of 1955.Through this amendment , ‘illegal migrant’ was determined as any foreigner whohas entered India without any valid passport or travel documents or anyone whohas entered in India with a valid passport or travel documents but has stayedbeyond the permitted time period.
Thamendment also defined ‘Overseas Citizen of India’, as any person of a foreigncountry of India origin or who was an Indian citizen immediately prior tobecoming a citizen of other country.
Theact further modified the provisions for ‘Citizenship by Birth’ as under
Itwas during the discussion of this bill in Parliament, that Dr. Manmohan Singhhas requested the government to even look into the case of refugees who arepersecuted minorities and have come from Bangladesh.
Here,Dr. Manmohan Singh while referring to persecuted minorities may inherently referto non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh but does not make any specific referenceto religions.
Furthermore,it was spoken in context of CAB-2003 which has different provisions compared tothat of CAB-2019.
CAB-2019,is primarily about granting citizenship to persecuted minorities from thecountries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and belonging to any of thesix (Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists and Parsi) religiouscommunities.
Dr.Manmohan Singh also does not specifically talk about any changes to the processinvolved in granting citizenship to these refuges, but asks the government ofthe day to be more liberal in granting citizenship to these refugees. The viewsexpressed in that discussion are not directly related to CAB-2019. At the sametime, Dr. Singh did talk about a liberal approach while granting citizenship topersecuted minorities.
Toconclude, Dr. Manmohan Singh did speak about the refugees & persecutedminorities in 2003. He was advocating a more liberal approach to granting themcitizenship. He does not talk about specific religions and refers to Bangladeshas an example. Hence to say that Dr. Manmohan Singh supported CAA likeprovisions in 2003 are not entirely true. Hence this claim is only Partly
True.
Claim: Dr. Manmohan Singh supported CAA like provisions in 2003 –  BJP working president J P Nadda.
Fact: Dr. Manmohan Singh did speak about the refugees & persecuted minorities in 2003. He was advocating a more liberal approach to granting them citizenship. He does not talk about specific religions and refers to Bangladesh as an example. Hence to say that Dr. Manmohan Singh supported CAA like provisions in 2003 are not entirely true. Hence this claim is only Partly True.﻿