Sat 31 August 2019:
A total of 31.1 million people were included in the NRC, leaving out 1.9 million people, according to a statement from the Assam government on Saturday.
“The entire process of NRC update has been meticulously carried out in an objective and transparent manner. Adequate opportunity of being heard has been given to all persons at every stage of the process. The entire process is conducted as per statutory provisions and due procedure followed at every stage,” the statement said.
Last July, more than four million people in the northeastern state were excluded from the final draft list of citizens published by the Registrar General of India.
The NRC list is unique to Assam and was first prepared in 1951. It will include those whose names appear in the 1951 document and their descendants.
The list will also include those who have been on India’s electoral rolls up to March 24, 1971, or in any other document approved by the government.
Detention and deportation
Human rights activists fear that the people who do not find their names on the list might face possible jail time or deportation, and their voting and other civil rights will be snatched away.
The government has already announced its plan to build 10 more detention centres. Nearly 1,000 people are currently lodged in six detention centres located in the existing district jails.
The state of Assam, which borders Muslim-majority Bangladesh, has historically witnessed migration first under the British colonial rule.
The mass arrival of Bangladeshi refugees, both Hindus and Muslims, during the 1971 war for the liberation of Bangladesh sparked violent anti-migrant agitations called the Assam Movement.
Members of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) run Assam – and critics say the NRC process reflects the BJP’s goal to serve only its coreligionists.
The BJP also plans to amend the citizenship law to allow minority communities from neighbouring countries to acquire Indian citizenship as long as they are not Muslims.
Critics say the BJP plans to pass the law to help Hindus in Assam, who have been excluded from the NRC list, get Indian citizenship.
This has stoked fears among India’s 170 million Muslim-minority for their future.
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