Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi dared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country. "If they have the guts, then they should implement it across the whole country," said Gogoi. He was interacting with journalists at the Press Club of India as part of a series of dialogues initiated by the research department of the Congress.

Gogoi stated that a majority of the people whose names had not appeared in the NRC are Indians. "There are genuine Indian citizens whose names are missing. There are army men, policemen and retired officials whose names are not there," he said.

Around 40 lakh people in Assam have been excluded from the final draft of the NRC, which was published on July 30, raising concern over the future of these people. Assam, which had witnessed influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC, which was first prepared in 1951.

He said that the while the BJP has tried to play electoral politics on the issue, it will not benefit much. "Amit Shah said that the soul of the NRC is the Assam Accord. Why then did he talk of bringing in the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Assam? Is he confused or is there a deliberate attempt to mislead people," he said.

Gogoi said that he had suggested to the Supreme Court that the names of those in the existing voters' list should be in the NRC. "I gave an affidavit to the SC in 2016. It has not been accepted or rejected. Subsequently, I wrote to the PM and the home minister," he said.