Assam NRC: Political parties share their disappointment

The final list of the National Registrar of Citizen in Assam, the biggest ever drive in India to weed out illegal immigrants and their descendants, was released on Saturday making around 19 lakh people ‘stateless’.

The list was published at 10 am and the hard copies of the Supplementary List of Inclusions is made available for public viewing at the NRC Seva Kendras (NSK), offices of the deputy commissioners and offices of the Circle Officer during office hours.

A statement from the NRC State Coordinator’s office said, total of 3,30,27,661 people had applied to be included in the NRC out of which 3,11,21,004 have been included in the document and 19,06,657 excluded.

With the release of the list, people thronged the NRC offices with some returning happily while others disappointed on not finding their names. The ruling NDA and opposition Congress, besides the All Assam Students Union said they were dissatisfied with the final citizenship roll.

Addressing a press conference at Guwahati, BJP Assam President Ranjeet Kumar Dass said the final NRC contains very small figure of exclusions compared to officially stated figures earlier. “We do not trust this NRC. We are very unhappy .We appeal to the central and the state governments to prepare a national level NRC,” he added.

Assam Gana Parishad (AGP), a member of the ruling NDA in the state, also expressed similar dissatisfaction and echoed the BJP. The state Agricultural Minister and leader of the AGP, Atul Bora said that the number of exclusion is very small and with this the existence of the Assamese will be threatened further. “We are not at all happy about it. The figure of 19,06,657 exclusions in the final NRC is too less and we just cannot accept it. There is scope for its review in the Supreme Court,” the AGP leader said to the newsmen there.

The All Assam Students Union (AASU), which spearheaded the 6-year movement that culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord of 1985, also said it was not happy with the final NRC and will appeal against it in the Supreme Court. “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 have faith in Supreme Court and will appeal in it to remove all the faults and discrepancies in this NRC,” AASU General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said in a press conference.