Dimapur, July 3 (EMN): Over the question of the National Register of Citizen (NRC), the Assam government got an extension of deadline by a month till July 31 - from the Supreme Court yesterday for publishing its National Register of Citizen (NRC).
This document will enlist the legitimate citizens of India living in Assam and identify the illegal immigrants residing in the state, reported a news report from the India Today news portal.
The ‘illegal immigrants’ will then be sent to their country of origin for an overwhelming majority, that country may be Bangladesh. Illegal immigration in northeast Inida, expecially from Bangladesh, has been a contagious issue for the people of northeast Indians.
Assam received migrants in great numbers in two phases one during Partition days and the other around 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. A majority of the immigrants are understood to be Muslims. Their presence in Assam has been a political issue for several decades. Lack of authentic documentation added to the problems and fanned emotive sentiments.
There is a pre-Independence law, the Foreigners Act of 1946 that empowers the state governments to deem any person suspected to be an illegal migrant and detain him/her. This law was in the play in 1951 when the first version of the NRC was prepared on the basis of that years Census. The NCR came under question and the Gauhati High Court in 1970 ruled that the 1951 draft was not admissible as evidence of citizenship.
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The 1951 NRC became a political tool for Assam agitation that saw Prafulla Mahanta of All Assam Students Union (AASU) take centrestage and grab power in the state in 1980s. Six years after AASU agitation, the Rajiv Gandhi government signed the Assam Accord that promised identification and deportation of illegal immigrants.
While identification and deportation process never took off, the issue became a political hot cake. The issue stirred up emotions along religious lines many a time. In 1998, the then Assam Governor Lieutenant General SK Sinha reported to the Centre it was only a matter of time before the Muslim-dominated areas of Assam demanded a merger with Bangladesh. Veteran BJP leader LK Advani also raised the pitch for deportation to illegal migrants, which political meant Bangladeshi Muslims.
Finally in 2005, the Manmohan Singh government announced that the NRC would be updated. The current process is a follow-up of that decision of the Congress-led UPA government. Tarun Gogoi of the Congress was the chief minister of Assam at the time. The process got a major push after the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016.
Following ethnic clashes between Bodos and Bengali Muslims in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts in 2012 causing more than 70 deaths, a bunch of petitions were filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction for speedy update of the NRC and deportation of illegal migrants. Invoking the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules 2003, the Supreme Court directed the government to update the NRC in a time-bound manner. The process began in 2015.
The final draft of the NRC was slated to be presented to the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the entire process. After government failed to publish the final NRC draft by June 30 and asked for more time, the Supreme Court on Monday extended the deadline till July 31.
The first draft was published in December last year. It had names of 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applicants. Documents of around 38 lakh people were found to be suspect.
This included documents of 29 lakh people who submitted certificates issued by ‘gram panchayats’ as proof of identity.
The Gauhati High Court had declared these panchayat certificates as invalid. But the Supreme Court modified these ruling making them admissible as proof of identity if they were followed up with proper verification.
So, where is the problem?
Census data shows sharp contrast in the percentage of Assamese and Bengali speakers in recent times. In 1991 there were 57.8 per cent Assamese speakers and 21.6 per cent Bengali speakers. The 2011 Census puts the number of Assamese speakers at 1.5 crore or 48.3 per cent and that of Bengali speakers at 90 lakh or 28.9 per cent.
The rise in Bengalis speakers is understood to reflect corresponding increase in the population of Muslims, who migrated from Bangladesh in 1971 and after. The determination of illegal migrants is ascertained by the foreign-tribunal.
The BJP government dismissed 19 foreign-tribunal members last year on the grounds of unsatisfactory performance. They challenged the decision in the Gauhati High Court, which upheld the governments assessment. These members were believed to be supporting the claims of immigrants who have settled in Assam.
NRC coordinator Pradeep Hajela proposed a formula establishing Family Tree - for differentiating citizens from illegal migrant. Hajela is said to have shown a power-point presentation to the Supreme Court and got the approval.
So, those who fail to establish their Indian family tree, are likely to classified as illegal migrants and face deportation. However, this may not be easy given that India and Bangladesh dont have an agreement to facilitate deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to that country. This will render the identified illegal migrants as stateless people.
