Assam NRC Final List: Families Anxious, Worried as D-day Nears

Guwahati/New Delhi: The morning of August 31 might prove to be catastrophic for millions of Assamese Hindus and Muslims, as the final list of the National Register of Citizen (NRC) list will be out. The list might sound the death knell for citizenship of of millions of people who have been living through moments of panic and tension, though those excluded have been assured that they will get a window of 120 days to prove their citizenship before their respective tribunal.

The final NRC list, to be published on August 31, aims to give a verdict on the citizenship of 41 lakh people in Assam, certifying whether they are Indian citizens or foreigners. The list is being published four years after NRC was implemented. A total of 3.29 crore people had applied for inclusion, and the total exclusions till now are 41 lakh.

Growing anxiety among people is palpable across the state and the issue also threatens to snowball into a huge political controversy, with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government on tenterhooks. 

Security has been beefed up across the state. Fifty-five companies of paramilitary forces have been flown from Jammu and Kashmir to Assam, with 14 districts being declared sensitive.

The Assam police has imposed Section 144 CrPC in several areas to maintain peace and public order during publication of the list and has also appealed to the people not to believe in rumours.

People Worried and Anxious

Har Kumar Goswami, a resident of Rampur in Barpeta district, had submitted legacy data of his father, whose name is mentioned in the 1951 NRC. His name made into the final draft NRC published on July 30, 2018. But during claims and objections, two members of the All Assam Student Union objected to inclusions in the draft list.

An electrical engineer, Goswami who lives with his wife and two children in Guwahati, told Newsclick: “We are extremely worried because the citizenship issue has now become a political issue. Therefore, we cannot say with surety that we will make it into the final list despite submitting all valid documents.” 

The publication of the final NRC list — as the state administration fears — could trigger an unprecedented crisis, more humanitarian in nature than related to law and order.

Amrit Das, 70, a resident of Barpeta Road in Barpeta District, was declared a foreigner on May 20, 2017. He was lodged in Goalpara detention centre where he died on April 6. He survived by his wife and three sons.

Using the citizenship certificate of his grandfather from 1951, Das’s family had filed applications for inclusion of their names but failed to make it into the draft. Now, the entire family is anxious about losing their citizenship. “If our names are not included in the final register, we will also be sent behind bars. We are not so well off and can’t afford legal expenses,” they said.

Shajahan Ali Ahmed, 30, who belongs to Aikhari Bilor Pather in Jalah circle of Baksa district, was volunteering to help thousands of NRC claimants since 2015, but, to his surprise, he found that only three memebers from his family of 33 were included in the draft list.

He said he had used the legacy of his grandfather, Moksood Ali, and had submitted his 1951 NRC. Despite appearing in hearings in five different places, he is still not sure about being included in the final list.      

Hailing from Gobardhana village in Baksa district, Kadam Ali, 43, has been languishing in the Goalpara detention centre for close to three years. His family of seven (three women and four minor children) had applied in 2015 for inclusion of their names in the NRC. But since he was marked as a doubtful voter (D-voter) in the state’s electoral rolls, none of them were included in the draft NRC. They attended several hearings in different locations and submitted their documents. His mother pleaded that if my husband and I are Indians, how can my son, Kadam, be a foreigner?

Unable to manage family expenses with Kadam, the sole breadwinner in jail, she has threatened to commit suicide if their names don’t find a place in the final list, as they are unable to bear the legal expenses.

The NRC updation rules suggest that those who are declared foreigners by a Foreigners Tribunal, those marked as D-voter, or those whose cases are pending in tribunals and their descendants who have drawn ‘legacy’ from such persons, will be excluded from the list. For children born after December 3, 2004, it is mandatory that both parents (even the one from whom legacy is not drawn) does not fall in any of the categories mentioned above.

Meanwhile, the BJP-ruled Central and state governments have said that those excluded from NRC would not be sent to detention camps, and will get a chance to file appeals within 120 days.Even minors,  will have to appear at the tribunals to appeal against their exclusion.

The foreigners’ tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies which opine whether a person is a foreigner as per the Foreigner’s Act, 1946. An FT sends notices to D-Voters and those against whom a reference has been made by the Border wing of Assam Police. The D-Voter category was introduced in Assam in 1997 to mark people in electoral rolls who were unable to prove their citizenship during verification.

The NRC sets the cut-off date to be a legal Indian citizen as March 24, 1971 — a date formalised by the Assam Accord, which was signed by the All Assam Students Union, Assam government and Central government in 1985. 

Last-Minute Hearings

Incidentally, NRC claimants across the state were still being called in to claim inclusion. Notices were issued by authorities to appear in hearings scheduled on August 29. 

Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked people not to panic and assured excluded people that the state government would take all possible measures to help ‘genuine’ Indians prove their citizenship and provide legal assistance. 

BJP’S Worry

What is worrying the ruling BJP is that the exclusion may include a large number of Hindus, which may impact its electoral fortunes.

It may be recalled that BJP President Amit Shah, who is now Union Home Minister, had in July 2018, termed all the 40,07,007 applicants left out of the final draft NRC as ‘ghuspethia’ (infiltrators). However, on August 27, the party’s state unit president, Ranjit Dass, reportedly expressed “unhappiness” and “concern” over the updating of the NRC.

Dass said, “We don’t believe that the NRC is going to be an error-free document...names of genuine Indian citizens would be left out of when it will be published on August 31.”

This is being seen by political observers as a significant development because Dass and other top BJP leaders in Assam have often made public statements calling for a mechanism to throw out “termites” and “infiltrators.

Those who are well aware of the ground reality said a large number of Hindus (mainly Bengali Hindus who have been voting for BJP) are also likely to be left out of the final NRC.

The Bengali Hindus of the state are considered to be a strong base of the Right-wing party, which made its maiden entry into the Assam Assembly in 1991 with strong support from the community. BJP and its ideological mentor, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), had successfully cashed in on their narrative that Bengali Hindus migrating from Bangladesh (previously East Pakistan) were “refugees” while Muslims were “infiltrators”.

The party registered an impressive victory in the Assembly elections in 2016 through clever use of the slogan to protect the Hindu community’s ‘jati, mati, bheti’ (home, hearth and identity) from “illegal Bangladeshis”.

(With inputs from Shakil Ahmad in Guwahati)