There has been a mixed reaction in India after news that more than four million people in the northeastern Indian state of Assam face being stripped of their citizenship after they were left off an official register.
The draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), published on Monday, includes only those who were able to prove they were in Assam before 1971 when millions fled Bangladesh's war of independence into the state.
Under the Assam Accord, an agreement signed by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, all those who cannot prove that they came to the north-eastern state before March 1971 will be deleted from electoral rolls and expelled as they are not considered legitimate citizens.
But around four million, a majority of them Bengali-speaking Muslims, have not found their name on the list.
India released a final draft of a list of citizens in the northeastern state of Assam, leaving some 4 million people on edge to prove their Indian nationality. Source: AAP
Sailesh, India's registrar general, told reporters in Guwahati, Assam’s largest city that those left out can file appeals by September 28th and prove their Indian nationality by providing documents.
India claims the move will rid the country of illegal migrants from Bangladesh but rights groups say there is no effective appeal body for those excluded from the register.
Amid heightened security in the state, the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) which had been instrumental in bringing about the Assam Accord, welcomed the move, while India's Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh, tweeted that it was only a draft and that everyone would have 'the opportunity to file claims and objections."
However, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the way in which the exercise was undertaken.
All India Trinamool Congress MPs protest the issue of the National Register of Citizens in Delhi in January 2018. Source: Hindustan Times
"There are reports pouring in from all corners of Assam of Indian citizens finding their names missing in the draft NRC, creating massive insecurity in the state. Clearly, after spending close to 1,200 Cr, the execution of this critical and highly sensitive exercise has been tardy," he wrote on his Facebook page.
West Bengal ready to help Assam
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of neighbouring state, West Bengal, said that her state is ready to provide shelter to people not recognised as citizens in Assam's National Register of Citizens.
Ms Banerjee, has accused the ruling BJP of trying to identify and isolate people who don't vote for the party. "They are turning Indian people into refugees in their own country," Ms Banerjee said at a press conference.
"I am sending a team of party MPs to Assam and if necessary, I will go there too," she said.
"Many people have been identified as foreigners and they are to be sent back. There are many children and women among them... So many Bengalis, Biharis, Hindus, Muslims... they are very much Indians."
Source: SBS
'Historic, cultural and religious politics'
Hundreds of thousands of people fled to India from Bangladesh during its 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
Most of them settled in Assam, which shares a border with Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.
“This issue is also the product of the historic, cultural and religious politics of the region", says Alex Davis, a research fellow with La Trobe University Department of Politics and Philosophy and the Australia India Institute.
"Dating back to Partition, there are a great number of people living around the India-Bangladesh border whose citizenship of either country is poorly documented," he told SBS.
"Those who can’t prove their ancestral history in Assam prior to March 1971 (the formation of Bangladesh, when there were large flows of Bengali Muslim refugees into India) have now been deemed ‘illegal migrants’ rather than ‘Indian citizens’.
Alex Davis says that a number of people left off the NRC list are of Bengali origin, who have not been able to prove their origins in India prior to 1971, even though many have lived in India their whole lives.
"These people are disproportionately Muslim. The Trinamool Congress argues that this reflects the BJP’s broader ‘anti-Bengali’ politics, and so is seeking to assist those who might be disenfranchised.”
Muslims arrive in a country boat to check if their names are included in the NRC n Bur Gaon village, 70 kms east of Gauhati, India, Monday, July 30, 2018. Source: AAP
'Illegal' immigrants
All Moran Students' Union president Arunjyoti Moran is quoted as saying, "The NRC is the first step towards making our state free from illegal immigrants. The Centre should come up with a clear-cut formula on how to deal with people who ultimately fail the citizenship test."
Another students union, the All Assam Students' Union, said it's looking forward to the final NRC.
"We are certain that the problem of illegal influx in Assam, especially from Bangladesh, will be resolved. We have faith in the NRC," AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath told the Times of India.
Meanwhile, BJP President Dilip Ghosh, in the neighbouring state of West Bengal is reported to have said that if his party wins in the state, it will launch a National Register of Citizens (NRC) there as well.
The Assam government has set 31st December as the deadline to complete the entire process of the National Register of Citizens.
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