#NRCAssam I reiterate that as requested by Central and State governments at least 20% reverification (bordering di… https://t.co/bvVkkM7Dbu — Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) 1567235308000

GUWAHATI: Almost two million people are desperately unhappy that they have not made the final cut as bona fide Indian citizens into Assam’s National Register of Citizens, published on Saturday. Many others felt too few had been rejected.A total of 3.11 crore people made it to the final list.There was widespread anger and a sense of betrayal among political parties across the spectrum and other stakeholders as Assam’s NRC updation process, billed as the country’s most complex and most controversial headcount, rejected the citizenship claims of a little over 19 lakh people out of the total 40.7 lakh who had not found a place in last year’s draft NRC.Those dissatisfied believe the NRC has legitimised the existing nature of Assam’s demography, the reason why the state suffered political and ethnic flare-ups.The low percentage of exclusion in the Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant majority districts, particularly those bordering Bangladesh, has given rise to a belief among those calling the process “flawed” that most illegal migrants have made it into the NRC.Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “The names of many Indian citizens who migrated from Bangladesh as refugees prior to 1971 have not been included in the NRC because the authorities refused to accept their refugee certificates.” He added, “Many names got included because of manipulation of legacy data, which many alleged occurred.”Sarma tweeted, “I reiterate that as requested by the central and state governments at least 20% re-verification (bordering districts) and 10% re-verification (remaining districts) should be allowed by Honble Apex court for a correct and fair NRC.”In all, 3.3 crore people had applied for entry into the NRC.A full list of those who qualified for the NRC this time and last year will be put online on September 7. The NRC validates the Indian citizenship of people in Assam.As a way forward, 200 foreigners tribunals will be set up to hear the appeals of those who failed to make it to the final NRC . The Centre has extended the time for re-application from 60 days to 120 days from Saturday itself. The foreigners tribunals have the authority to either declare a person a foreigner or overrule the NRC findings and declare him or her an Indian. If the foreigners tribunals offer no relief, courts of law can be approached.Several stakeholders, like Assam Public Works and the All Assam Students’ Union, feel the outcome of the updation exercise failed in its objective to identify foreigners as the number of those excluded fell short of their expectations. “We are not happy at all. It seems there were some deficiencies in the update process. We believe that it is an incomplete NRC. We will appeal to the Supreme Court to remove all discrepancies,” Aasu general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said.APW president Aabhijeet Sharma expressed similar sentiments. “This NRC has completely failed and this is not what we had fought for 10 years in the Supreme Court.”Soon after the publication of the final NRC, state NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela said, “The NRC update is a mammoth exercise involving around 52,000 state government officials. All decisions of inclusion and exclusion were taken by these statutory officers. The entire update process has been meticulously carried out in an objective and transparent manner.” He added, “Adequate opportunities were given to every applicant at every stage to present their case.”The percentage of those excluded is just about 5.77% of the 3.3 crore applicants. This has created resentment among all those who want every foreigner to be detected and deported to his or her place of origin. Organisations like BJP, its ally AGP, Congress and Aasu (the spearhead of the erstwhile anti-foreigner agitation) and Assam Public Works (whose petition in the SC led to the NRC updation) have called the final NRC a “flawed exercise”. They are of the view that most of the people who were left out of the final NRC are “genuine Indians”, while “illegal migrants” with forged documents have got into the citizenship rolls taking advantage of a “faulty verification system”.APW said it “would move the SC again seeking 100% re-verification of the final list”.Three-time Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, of Congress, said the Centre had failed in its duty. “The way the NRC was prepared casually, illegal immigrants have been included in the list and genuine Indians excluded. It is the responsibility of the government of India. We feel helpless,” Gogoi was quoted as saying. “The NRC has left 19 lakh people in a precarious situation. They are neither citizens of India nor are they foreigners… they are neither here nor there. The NRC doesn’t come in the way of detecting foreigners. The government must do its duty,” he said.Despite opposition from various quarters, the day passed without any untoward incident. The government had tightened security and had brought in more than 218 companies of central paramilitary personnel from other states, including Jammu & Kashmir, as reinforcements to maintain law and order.Many said that with the state government and major parties going against the final NRC, the Centre might find it difficult to conduct a similar exercise in other parts of the country, which BJP had promised during the Lok Sabha election.The NRC exists only in Assam and the first list was prepared 68 years ago to determine nationals and non-nationals. The current list contains the names of the descendants of those whose names had figured in the 1951 NRC and those who had migrated from outside. This includes those from Bangladesh who arrived in the state up to March 25, 1971 — the cutoff year for identification of foreigners fixed by the Centre, the state government and Aasu-All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad in the 1985 Assam Accord.Successive governments over several decades have failed to stop the influx of illegal migrants from across the border. A six-year anti-foreigner movement from 1979 to 1985 did not yield the desired results. The cross-border illegal migration, initially pushed by economic causes, turned into a political game as parties made use of this as their poll plank — some against and some for.The only gain, perhaps, from the movement was the signing of the Assam Accord between Aasu, the Centre and the state government and the setting of a new cutoff date — March 24, 1971 — as against 1951 in the rest of the country, to determine citizenship.