Remember that child from Assam whose picture where he is seen saluting the flag, while in knee-deep water broke the internet last Independence Day? Of course you do. Well, it appears that his name was not in the National Register of Citizens.

"My name is not there," Haidor Ali Khan, now a Class IV student told The Telegraph.

Last year, the picture had gone viral. Standing in knee-deep water, the teaching staff and two students of an Assam school are seen saluting the national flag.

The two students have been identified as Jiarul Ali Khan and Haidor Ali Khan from Class 3. “We couldn’t do much due to the flooding. We sang the national anthem and Vande Mataram. Since, small children can’t be in water for long, we dispersed the assembly early,” Mizanur Rahman, one of the teachers was quoted as saying.

On July 30, the fate of all 3.29 crore applicants was decided, with 40 lakh people's names not appearing in the list.

Also read People whose names are missing from Assam NRC sent to detention camps, claims Mamata Banerjee

The massive exercise, aimed at identifying the illegal immigrants in the north-eastern state bordering Bangladesh, is being carried out following a decision in 2005 after a series of meetings involving the central and state governments and the influential All Assam Students' Union (AASU).

When the NRC was first prepared in Assam in 1951, the state had 80 lakh citizens.

Also read Separate biometric ID will be created for people filing claims and objections for Assam NRC: Centre

The process of identification of illegal immigrants in Assam has been debated and has become a contentious issue in the state's politics.

A six-year agitation demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants was launched by the AASU in 1979.

It had culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985, in the presence of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Those not part of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), a list of Assam's residents, will not automatically be declared foreigners, but will get a one-month window to file claims and objections, besides subsequent judicial recourse, a senior Home Ministry official said.