UP Shia Central Waqf Board demands pan-India NRC rollout; says it will not harm Muslims

UP Shia Central Waqf Board chairman Waseem Rizvi on Thursday demanded a nationwide NRC rollout. This came against the backdrop of protests against the NRC in several parts of the country and the Home Minister making a statement that there was no such plan.

Rizvi said that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will do no harm to the Muslim community, "and it should be implemented across the nation."

He said that Samajwadi Party, the opposition party in UP, and the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal were protesting against the nationwide implementation of NRC to garner Muslim votes.

"Infiltrators are the vote bank of the Congress, Samajwadi Party, and Mamata Banerjee," he said.

Under the NRC, which aims to identify illegal immigrants, citizens will have to furnish certain documents to prove that they are residents of India. It was rolled out in Assam where around 19 lakh people could not make it to the draft NRC.

Amid the nationwide uproar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week said that his government never discussed the NRC after which, Home Minister Amit Shah said it has not been discussed either in Parliament or the Cabinet.

"There is no need to debate this (pan-India NRC) as there is no discussion on it right now. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was right. There is no discussion on it yet either in the Cabinet or Parliament," Shah told ANI as against his earlier statement in Parliament vowing to introduce the exercise across India.

Rizwi is known for his contrary stand to other Muslim organisations and issues concerning the community.

He earlier demanded the inclusion of the Shia community in the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but did not oppose the exclusion of the Muslim community as a whole from the law.

He also welcomed the Supreme Court verdict on the Ram Temple and donated Rs 51,000 for its construction in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.

He also compared the vocal Muslim leader and AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi with slain ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a dreaded terrorist.