A fortnight after taking charge in the Union Home Ministry, Amit Shah already has his hands full. Two chief ministers of crucial states—Sarbananda Sonowal of Assam and Jagan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh—met Shah in North Block on Friday. It was Shah's first meeting with the two after taking charge as the home minister. Thought both the meetings were termed as ''courtesy calls'', they came as a quick reminder of the burning issues pending before the home ministry.
The importance of the heavy home portfolio for Shah can also be gauged from the fact that he left straight for North Block after chairing a party meeting at the BJP headquarters on Friday afternoon. Shah, who continues to be the BJP president, sat till evening in North Block lending ear to a string of high profile visitors to his office. Clearly, Sonowal and Reddy had issues of concern for the home minister.
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The Assam government is at a crucial stage of implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which will come out with the final list on July 31. The law and order situation in Assam ahead of publishing the NRC list will be Shah's immediate concern as the issue has generated much heat in the state where the BJP has been pinning its hope to fulfil its promise of checking illegal migration. The road ahead will be equally important as Shah will have to chart out a course for those who are not in the final list. In the previous BJP government's tenure, the home ministry officials had clarified that people who are not in the list will be neither detained nor asked to leave the country.
Meanwhile, newly-elected Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Reddy made it clear that the ''special status'' to the state was still on top of his priority list and that he would be raising the issue at the NITI Aayog meet on Saturday.
During the first term of the BJP government, the home ministry was not keen to grant special status to the state as it would mean opening a Pandora's box. Then home ministry under Rajnath Singh had disbursed funds and lent central assistance to the state for its development and infrastructure without declaring ''special status'' for the state. In an interview to THE WEEK on April 27, Rajnath Singh had said, ''We had said that whatever special assistance is required from the central government after the bifurcation of the state, will be provided. We have provided all possible assistance to the state and whatever is needed we will continue to give. Just the name of special status has not been given to it. In a federal structure, we will continue to assist the states but to give special status to one and not to others is not correct.'' Singh was referring to similar demands made by states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
"I took an appointment with the home minister today evening to try and prevail on him, and to also soften the PM's heart on special category status that we'll definitely be asking for in tomorrow's NITI Aayog meeting," Reddy said after meeting Shah."The agenda of my visit was tomorrow's NITI Aayog meeting. Tomorrow we'll be presenting our case to the NITI Aayog, which is chaired by the prime minister," he added.
Whether Shah will be able to convince Andhra Pradesh and handle the politically sensitive issue of special status and whether Assam becomes a role model for some other states to demand an NRC to tackle illegal migration concerns remain to be seen in the coming months. For now, the plate is only getting fuller for Shah in North Block.
