BJP coercing opposition to gain RS majority: Cong

 Launching an attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, here on Wednesday, said the ruling party was using a trident of ED, CBI and IT to win majority in the Upper House of Parliament.

"The BJP is using the trishul of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax (IT) to get the majority," he said.

Addressing the media, he said the Congress was opposed to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) as it was anti-secular and against the Preamble of Constitution. "Our opposition is on principle and not political opposition. We are going to oppose the CAB in as well as outside Parliament," Ramesh said.

Slamming the BJP over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, Ramesh said Union Home Minister Amit Shah "doesn't talk of the NRC in Assam. Now he talks about the NRC in Bengal, Jharkhand and Karnataka and because his lies were exposed in Assam."

"The NRC was a historical decision. It was needed in Assam due to historical reasons, peculiar to Assam. But when Shah and Narendra Modi talks about the NRC in Bengal and Jharkhand they are using it as a political tool to divide the society," he said.

The Congress be credited for the NRC, he said and added, it was the Congress government that took steps to update the NRC in Assam. "It was a Congress government which prepared the NRC in 1951, signed the Assam Accord in 1985 where the NRC was a foundation and held tripartite talks with All Assam Students' Union (Aasu) and state government in 2005," he said.

He said the Congress would take a stand on the NRC as per the Constitution. "We are going by the Constitution as far as the NRC is concerned," he said.IANS