The much awaited 2nd draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which NRC authority says is the final draft, was published on 30th July 2018. Published in two chapters, it drops 4,007,707 persons. Of the total 32,991,384 applicants, 28,983,667 were included as legal Indians in the NRC which was prepared under direct supervision of the Supreme Court (SC) in a time consuming and tedious effort.
Image: Indian Express
It is understood from this that 87 percent of the applicants are registered in the NRC. Noteworthy is the fact that 2.48 lac family members of D voters and the victims under judicial process are among the drop outs. 1.15 lac people whose names appeared in the first draft, but should not have been there for various reasons according to NRC authority, are among the total drop outs in the final draft.
Through Claims and Objections, the process of inclusion of the unduly excluded citizens or exclusion of illegally included foreigners, has already started. All might have been optimistic like us that neither a native would be excluded nor a foreigner would be included in the recently published register. But it is unfortunate that many Indian citizens did not find their names in the draft. A large number of computer errors or human errors were also found.
Also interestingly, along with a section of Assamese media, national and international news media are allegedly engaged in propagation of news or discussion labeling the left out applicants as foreigners. Some of the Assam political leaders did not hesitate to take the chance of making statements that all 4 million were foreigners. Even the National President of BJP, the party ruling both in center and state, is found to have addressed the media labeling these people as foreigners.
This propaganda is truly unfortunate when former Chief Minister of the state, past and present MLAs, soldiers who have fought various wars, personalities of eminence, civil society members, lawyers, journalists and people from various walks of life are excluded. It is evident from meetings and interviews with people of various villages and walks. It is emphasized that the NRC should be correct with exclusion of outsiders and inclusion of the natives.
Traveling across many villages of Assam, we met and interviewed people of various walks of life revealed that, in practice, millions of genuine Indians are excluded from the final draft of NRC. Certain unwanted questions arise when lacs of Indians are humiliated with this exclusion which suggests that the citizens so excluded are foreigners and illegally living in India. Though on the surface the reasons for exclusion appear valid, but in fact they have been designed for depriving a section of people. For example, it is said that in Morigaon district several people who are foreigners in the opinion (not judgment) of FT have still managed to find place in the NRC.
Now, it is known that an FT is not judicial court, and the main person thereof is not a judicial magistrate. It is chaired by an advocate with a decade of experience. It has to be noted, the persons occupying the chair in the FTs, i.e. the persons deciding whether the accused are Indian citizens or not, are contractual salaried persons of home department of Assam. They don’t even have the security of their job. They are allegedly constantly under pressure from various authorities in their decisions. Thus, they allegedly declare people with all valid documents as foreigners on the basis of mere suspicion or prejudice. Those who have sufficient documents applied for inclusion of their names and they found place as per preliminary conditions of NRC.
Propaganda related to NRC, inside or outside the country, is mostly inappropriate or biased. When the top leaders of ruling party have constantly tried to found the touchstone on the basis of religion, the whole process of deciding citizenship enters the area of suspicion. It is alleged that while some religious communities are deliberately excluded, other religious communities allegedly enjoy shelter and security.
In the context where millions of true citizens are dropped from the NRC, it is surprising or inhuman for any authority to say that the number of exclusion is less. However, if all the parties try to feel the facts impartially, the right path might be found along with clear knowledge of facts and fabrication.
