Prime Minister Narendra Modi has broken his silence on implementation of the Supreme Court-mandated Assam citizens' list with a sharp rebuttal to Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who had warned that it could lead to "civil war and bloodbath".
PM Modi suggested it was reflection of her loss of faith.
"Those who have lost faith in themselves, fear loss of popular support and lack faith in our institutions can use words like 'civil war', 'bloodbath' and 'desh ke tukde tukde'. Evidently, they are disconnected from the pulse of the nation," PM Modi told news agency ANI in an interview on Saturday.
This is the first time that PM Modi has spoken on the NRC, or national register of citizens.
Last month, a draft list of citizens put out by the government had excluded 40 lakh people who had, for one reason or the other, not able to prove their Indian citizenship.