The much bigger problem, however, is that even if the Government is able to identify the allegedly two crore illegal Bangladeshis saying in India, as MoS Home Kiren Rijju had claimed in November 2016, what would the Government do with them?

Data in 2017 indicated that the Government had been able to send back around 600 illegal Bangladeshi migrants per year and it will be centuries before the government would be able to send back Bangladeshis at this rate.

India enjoys friendly relations with Bangladesh and though they have said they are willing to take back their citizens who had illegally migrated to India, the onus of providing that they are Bangladeshi citizens would rest on India. Till 2018, a total of 91,609 persons had been declared or convicted as foreigners and only 128 had been sent back till August 31, 2018.

The other really big challenge would be to set up a detention camp for the two crore people. In September 2019, the Assam government started setting up a detention camp in Goalpara district for around 3,000 people. The cost for the project was estimated at ₹45 crores. If the government were to construct a detention camp to house 19 lakh people who have been excluded in NRC list in Assam, the cost would be close to a massive ₹28,500 crore.

Now imagine the policy being rolled out on the national level. With an estimated 2 crore Bangladeshis, the Government may have to spend a massive ₹2-3 lakh crore to construct and maintain detention camps. The number of illegal Bangladeshis in India would be close to the population of Romania and Sri Lanka.

Since these people would be lodged in Detention Camps, they would not be able to make a living and hence would have to be provided for. Keeping the monthly consumption as a base, the government would have to provide ₹ 1,500 per month for every inmate of these camps. This would mean an expense of ₹3,000 crores per month or ₹36,000 crores a year just to take care of the basics.

Like almost everything on the BJP Manifesto, the NRC idea is driven by rhetoric and not backed by any execution plans or even understanding what it means.

The question is whether the Government will give its NRC plans a quiet burial or will it bring a cabinet note to take the process forward.

Home Minister Amit Shah should answer soon.