New Delhi: In run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is likely to constitute committees on issues related to Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft, controversial Rafale deal and unemployment for an all-out attack on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central government.
According to sources, the decision to form the committees was taken on Saturday’s Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting. Names of those who would head the respective committees were also firmed up. Senior Congress leaders Anand Sharma, P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh would be heading the committees, sources added.
The party has decided that the committees would look into the controversial issues in depth before going to the public attacking the government. The Congress has also decided to start a mass movement on various issues related to the people and the country.
Today was the second CWC meeting after Rahul Gandhi took over as the president of the party. The first meeting was held on July 22.
Addressing the media after today’s CWC meeting, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that several crucial issues including NRC, corruption, bank fraud, unemployment, agrarian crisis, etc were discussed during the meeting.
On the Rafale deal issue, he accused Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of refraining from disclosing the price of the Rafale aircrafts.
Surjewala also attacked the central government over the exclusion of nearly 40 lakh people from the Assam NRC draft list, and said that these people should be given a chance to prove their citizenship.
While terming the NRC as a ‘totally fair process’, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured that everyone would get a chance to appeal in the matter. “I would like to repeat that it is a draft and not final, everyone will get chance to appeal. It is a totally fair process. Unwarranted accusations are unfortunate. Procedure of NRC started in 1985 through the Assam accord when the late Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. The decision to update was taken by Dr Manmohan Singh in 2005,” Singh said.
Following the release of the list, the Opposition has been at loggerheads with the Centre.
The first draft was published on December 31, 2017, and names of 1.9 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated. The NRC draft features the names, addresses, and photographs of all Indian citizens, who have been residing in the northeastern state before March 25, 1971.
The second draft, which was released on July 30, left out nearly 40 lakh people in Assam, incorporating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. (ANI)