[caption id="attachment_268914" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
People to check their names on the final list of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), in Kamrup, Saturday.[/caption]
Guwahati, Aug. 31 (PTI): The ruling BJP on Saturday said they do not trust the updated National Register of Citizens, specifically prepared for Assam, and appealed the party governments, both at the centre and the state, to make a nationwide NRC.
Addressing a press conference here, BJP Assam President Ranjeet Kumar Dass said that the government will bring in legislation to safeguard the Indian citizens if the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) deliver adverse judgements against the appeals.
“We do not trust this NRC. We are very unhappy. We appeal the central and state governments to prepare a national level NRC,” he added.
The final NRC contains very small figure of exclusions compared to officially stated figures earlier, he said.
Dass claimed that former Congress Chief Minister Hiteswar Saikia had given a figure of 30 lakh foreigners living in Assam in the Assembly during his tenure from 1991-96.
“Then the Union Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal of the Congress stated in Rajya Sabha that two crore Bangladeshis had entered India and 50 lakh of them settled in Assam. Former Home Minister Indrajit Gupta also mentioned a figure of 42 Bangladeshis,” he added.
The final NRC was published on Saturday by excluding 19,06,657 persons. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.
In July last year, 40,07,707 people were excluded from the complete draft of the NRC. An additional 1,02,462 persons were included in June this year in the list of excluded persons, taking the total ineligible persons to 41,10,169 in the complete draft.
Dass said the party will keep a close watch on the process of appeal in the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) by the excluded persons and the judgements of the cases.
“If we see that FTs are delivering adverse judgments on the appeals by genuine Indian citizens, we will not wait for the entire 19 lakh cases to be disposed off. We will bring in legislation and make an act to protect them,” he asserted.
The BJP state chief informed that the party is getting reports from various districts about exclusions of indigenous people.
“As per our estimate, two lakh genuine Indians were left out who had applied. Then four lakh more did not appeal after their names were not included in the draft NRC,” he added.
Dass said many refugees coming to India before 1971 were not included and “names like Saha, Ganguly, Biswas etc were intentionally” excluded from the final version of the NRC, touted to be a proof of Assamese identity.
“Many people with forged certificates were included. The NRC authority did not verify them with the issuer. The government had all the records,” he claimed.
BJP also supported the government’s appeal in the Supreme Court of 20 per cent sample re-verification, but the NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela “lied in the SC that already 27 per cent verification took place” and the top court believed him.
Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi held discussions with top party leaders on issues related to the NRC, after the updated final list of the register was released on Saturday, shutting out citizenship claims of over 19 lakh applicants in Assam.
The party leadership has sought details of people left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and is working out a plan with its functionaries in Assam to help and provide legal aid to those affected, sources said.
Senior Congress leaders, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Mukul Sangma and Gaurav Gogoi, were present at the meeting.
The Congress will stand by all those genuine citizens who have been left out of the NRC and will continue to fight for them and provide legal aid, Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, adding that genuine citizens must be protected and included in the NRC.
“The NRC has come out after an extensive exercise monitored by the Supreme Court. We are demanding that genuine citizens should not be left out. We are putting pressure for including them in the NRC,” he told PTI.
The BJP propaganda on this issue has been debunked and they cannot run away or pass the buck now as it is their government in Assam, Chowdhury said.
The Congress is already providing legal aid to those affected and will stand by them till they are included, he said.
Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi said district-wise details of people have been sought from party leaders in Assam. The Congress stands by every genuine Indian citizen and it will provide legal aid to those affected, he asserted.
“Every section of Assam is unhappy with the status of the NRC. Even BJP ministers are complaining about it. There has been careless implementation of the NRC as many genuine Indian citizens will have to unnecessarily face the courts. The Congress will provide all help to them as the nation is above politics,” Gogoi said.
Congress leader Mukul Sangma said the NRC is an exercise under the Assam Accord and “the stand of our party is very clear that the rights of real citizen should be safeguarded”.
The updated final NRC, which validates bonafide Indian citizens of Assam, was released on Saturday, with the register conducting the exercise shutting out the citizenship claims of over 19 lakh applicants who now face an uncertain future.
A total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC. Of them, 3,11,21,004 have been included in the document and 19,06,657 excluded, a statement from the NRC State Coordinator’s office said.
Those who have been excluded from the NRC have 120 days to appeal against it at Foreigners Tribunals. If not satisfied with the verdict of the tribunals, they will have the option to move the High Court and the Supreme Court for redress.
In order to assuage the fears of those who could be excluded from the final list, the Assam government has already ruled out their detention “in any circumstances” till the time Foreigners Tribunals declare them foreigners.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi tweeted, “Up to 4 million Indian citizens could be made stateless tomorrow if they are not included on National Register of Citizens (NRC).”
“A thought process of inclusion/exclusion, even if it errs on the side of illegals, is not as bad as declaring your own illegal,” he said.
A Congress leader pointed out that a BJP minister in Assam Hemanta Biswa Sarma has said that their only concern now is to maintain law and order in the state after the publication of the NRC list.
People should not panic even after their names are dropped from NRC as all those excluded can move the Foreigner Tribunals and challenge their exclusion within 120 days, he said.
The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) said it is not happy with the exclusion figure in the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) which was released on Saturday, and will appeal against it in the Supreme Court.
The AASU is a signatory to the Assam Accord, a 1985 document that provided for “detection, deletion and deportation” of illegal foreigners from Assam.
The NRC in the state has been updated under the monitoring of the Supreme Court to include only genuine Indian nationals.
“We are not happy at all. It seems there were some deficiencies in the updatation process. We believe that it is an incomplete NRC. We will appeal to the Supreme Court to remove all the faults and descrepancies in this NRC,” AASU General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said.
The final NRC was released on Saturday leaving out over 19 lakh applicants.
Addressing a press conference, Gogoi said the final figure of exclusion did not reach near the figures officially announced by the authorities on various occasions.
