New Delhi, Nov 23 (IANS): The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has opposed the government plan to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country as well as the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which it is pressing to bring in this session.

JIH Vice-President Muhammad Salim Engineer said, "The Jamaat expresses grave apprehension on the announcement by the Home Minister that the NRC shall be implemented all over the country. We feel it's a deliberate diversion of priorities by the government to hide its failures on the economy and other core issues and development".

Stating that there are known procedures and laws to identify foreigners or illegal immigrants, he said putting 135 crore people into difficulty was unjustified. It would cause huge financial burden on the taxpayer, he added.

The JIH said the NRC exercise in Assam had failed as 2 million applicants did not in the final list. The government had no idea as what to do with them, it added.

Pointing out that the allegation that Assam had four million infiltrators turned out to be false, it said the nation-wide NRC would only cause inconvenience to citizens, especially minorities and marginalised communities.

Opposing the CAB, Engineer said, "the Jamaat feels it's against the spirit of our Constitution and discriminatory. It proposes to grant citizenship only to Hindus coming to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and not to other religious communities."