Bhubaneswar: The BJD on Thursday accused BJP president Amit Shah of mischievously twisting Prasanna Acharya's speech in Parliament for political gains over the issue of National Register of Citizens.
While speaking on the contentious issue in Rajya Sabha earlier this week, BJD MP Acharya said: "The NRC was part of the Assam Accord between Rajiv Gandhi and the AASU. It was set up later. We have reservations about 40 lakh people not finding their names in the register. This is a humanitarian issue. The people who have been left out must be given another opportunity and all these things should be done as per the law. Otherwise a serious situation will emerge."
Taking part in the debate, Shah thanked Naveen's party and expressed "grave sorrow" that none else than the BJP and the BJD had found it fit to say that illegal immigrants had no place in this country.
Shah's "compliment" was enough to embarrass Naveen's party and the Congress lost no time in saying that the BJD's secular facade had been exposed.
The BJP had managed to convey the impression that the BJD had sided with the NDA on the NRC issue. Sensing "mischief", the BJD deployed Acharya on Thursday to clarify the party's stand on the Assam issue.
Hitting out at the BJP president, the BJD MP said: "We are surprised to find Shah misinterpreting our stand and creating an impression as if we are supporting the NDA. The purpose is to politicise the issue and drag us into an unnecessary controversy. The way Shah and the BJP's Odisha unit thanked the BJD shows that it was a calculated move to embarrass us."
Speaking to The Telegraph, Acharya said: "NRC was prepared according to the direction and supervision of the Supreme Court. As NRC is a national issue we have supported it like many other parties, including the Samajwadi Party. At the same time, there are nearly 40 lakh people whose names have not figured in the register because of mistakes that should be rectified."
Stating that his party always gave issue-based support to national parties and maintained equal distance from both the NDA and the UPA, he said: "Here we are finding that the BJP is diluting the issue and trying to portray us in a wrong way."
His Rajya Sabha colleague, P.K. Deb said: "Acharya had clearly put forth the party's stance on the issue. But it had been misrepresented. We continue to pursue the policy of equal distance from both the NDA and the UPA."
For the record, Odisha has 3,987 Bangladeshi suspected infiltrators. Naveen had told the Assembly on March 30, 2015, that Odisha was in touch with the Centre for taking action against such infiltrators.
Naveen had told the Assembly that the highest number of 1,649 Bangladeshi infiltrators had been recorded in Kendrapara district, followed by 1,112 in Jagatsinghpur. He also said that infiltrators had been identified in Malkangiri (655), Bhadrak (313), Balasore (150), Nabarangpur (106) and Bargarh (2) districts.
Barely two days after praising the BJD, the BJP on Thursday targeted Naveen and his party.
BJP state unit president Basant Panda said: "Our chief minister is hard working and the best administrator. But he is in deep slumber and the administration is run by a coterie. That the government has been hit by inertia has been proved once again with a man in Boudh district being forced to carry the body of his sister-in-law on a bicycle."
