NEW DELHI: Congress on Saturday accused BJP of a “diabolic agenda” to use the National Register of Citizens for communal polarisation and raised questions over the NRC ’s exclusions even as it reiterated that the exercise is riddled with anomalies.

Congress claimed that it has aggressively pursued identification of illegal migrants but added that exclusion of 40 lakh residents from the register was marred by inaccuracies and BJP is attempting to divert attention from the “colossal failures” of the Modi government.

The Congress articulation on NRC came out more forcefully at a marathon discussion of the Congress Working Committee which had specially invited party MPs from Assam , including the state unit president and legislature party leader, to hear their views on the issue.

The CWC meeting also decided to launch a “public campaign” on Rafale deal to highlight what it called corruption in the Modi government and discussed “state of economy and lack of jobs”. “One of the highlights of today’s CWC meeting, was Mr Antony’s brilliant description of the Rafale robbery: 130,000 Cr. stolen from the people of India and given to a friend who was 45,000 crore in debt,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

During the discussion on Assam, former CM Tarun Gogoi argued he not only initiated the NRC process but also got the state electoral list scrutinised twice. Sources quoted him as saying that all those in the electoral list should be in the NRC.

In what appeared a riposte, state Congress chief Ripun Bora said doing so will give an impression that there were no illegal migrants. Gogoi clarified he was only underlining that he had reviewed the electoral rolls twice before holding the elections.

Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala said the NRC was started by UPA and Tarun Gogoi regime in Assam completed 80% of the exercise.

“Congress supports the NRC process. But there are multiple anomalies in the final draft NRC list, leaving out 40 lakh persons comprising indigenous Assamese people, Hindu Bengalis, Nepalis, Gorkhas, Tea Tribes, religious minorities, Indian citizens from other states.” Surjewala also distributed Parliament questions to say UPA deported 82,728 persons to Bangladesh between 2005-13 while Modi government had only deported 1,822 from 2014-17.

