As the rescheduled publication date of the second and final draft of the National Register of Citizens approaches, the people of Assam await it with anxiety and trepidation. Besides the fear of having one’s name excluded from the list, there is also a markedly strained relationship between Assamese and Bengali people irrespective of religion.
That said the release of the first NRC draft on the midnight of 31 December 2017 was welcomed by almost everyone. Following the long-standing demand of the residents of Assam, the NRC updating process was ordered by the Supreme Court. The apex court also continues to monitor the process. Defying all apprehensions of unpleasant incidents, the release met with general acceptance.
It may be noted that the NRC is a record of legal citizens in India and the first NRC was prepared in 1951 following a census in the same year. The NRC in Assam was also completed in 1951 alongside other states of the country. Now Assam is in the process for bringing out a new NRC, thus becoming the first Indian state to conduct the massive exercise again.
It is actually a follow-up action to the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985 when leaders decided to end the historic Assam movement. It was signed by leaders of the All Assam Students Union and Gana Sangram Parishad with the Union government in New Delhi in the presence of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The Accord put responsibility on the Centre to detect and deport all migrants (read East Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals) who entered Assam after the midnight of 24 March 1971. In other words, the agitating leaders agreed to accept all residents of Assam prior to the dateline as Indian nationals. It barely warrants mention that the movement was run with 1951 as the base year to detect illegal migrants. They, however, succeeded in ensuring constitutional safeguards to the indigenous communities of Assam in the agreement.
The influx of illegal Bangladeshi migrants still remains a significant socio-political issue for Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur. With that sentiment, the Assam movement erupted in the eighties and soon after its culmination, a regional political party named the Asom Gana Parishad emerged. It gave a space to all important AASU leaders and even succeeded in grabbing power in Dispur for two terms. But the AGP leaders did precious little to resolve the issue.
Now the AGP is an ally to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government of Assam. Unlike the previous Congress (or AGP) regimes, the new government under the leadership of Sarbananda Sonowal took the issue of influx seriously. The BJP government uttered the slogan for an “influx, corruption and pollution free Assam”, soon after taking charge in May 2016.
The much-awaited first NRC draft comprised 1.9 crore people out of around 3.29 crore applicants in the state. The process of updating began in 2013, which received 6.5 crore supporting documents comprising 68.27 lakh families. As the citizenry reposed faith in the authorities, there were no visible unwanted incidents, even though many people could not find their names in the first list.
The second and final NRC draft was scheduled for publication on 30 June but following the request of state NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela, who cited the reason of floodwaters inundating many important centres in Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts of south Assam, the apex court extended the deadline till 30 July. Hajela also made an observation that over 1.5 lakh names that appeared in the first list may be deleted for various reasons. He clarified that 65,694 people were found to be inadmissible during the family tree verification — a mechanism used for establishing family relationship with someone in Assam prior to 24 March 1971. Similarly, 48,456 married women submitted only panchayat certificates as linkage and 19,783 people sent invalid documents that need authentications.
Tensions erupted soon after Hajela’s admission that many names from the first draft might be deleted in the final one. Veteran Congress leader and former chief minister, Tarun Gogoi came out with a public statement that the process of NRC updation was not beyond doubt. The vocal politician asked how those 1.5 lakh people enrolled their names in the first list.
The situation turned more volatile when four UN special rapporteurs wrote to Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj expressing their concern over the discrimination faced by Bengali Muslim families in Assam. “The NRC update has generated increased anxiety and concerns among the Bengali Muslim minority in Assam, who have long been discriminated against due to their perceived status as foreigners, despite possessing the necessary documents to prove their citizenship,” said the letter.
It also asserted that there is still no official policy to address the people who would be excluded from the final NRC. They might be treated as foreigners and their citizenship rights revoked. Moreover, they might be asked to prove their citizenship before the Foreigners’ Tribunals in Assam, added the letter.
Another matter was raised by a forum of various indigenous and tribal communities of Assam arguing that the NRC would serve little purpose for locals in the region. Asom Sanmilita Mahasangha expressed apprehensions that there might be a huge population of migrants, who entered Assam after 1951 (and prior to 1971), would get enrolled in the final list. “As the NRC has been updated on the basis of 1971 (as its cut-off year), we fear that nearly 70 lakh outsiders living in Assam might become recognised citizens of the country. It may finally lead to a difficult situation for the indigenous communities of Assam,” commented Matiur Rahman of the forum.
Assam government officials are bracing for a potential law and order problem on the eve of 30 July. Attended by the state chief secretary TY Das and police chief Kuladhar Saikia along with other senior officers, meetings have primarily focused on sensitive districts like Nagaon, Morigaon, Dhuburi, Goalpara, Barpeta, Hojai et al where a sizable minority population resides.
Meanwhile, media debates have shown the ugly face of a section of Bengali-speaking politicians and intellectuals including West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, former Assam minister Siddique Ahmed, local minority leader Rashidul Haq Bahadur and educationist Tapodhir Bhattacharjee, who cried foul at the NRC updating process. Their views have been angrily shot down by Assamese civil society representatives.
The writer is The Statesman’s Guwahati-based Special Representative