Saffron surge against final NRC

GUWAHATI: With just 11 days left for publication of Assam’s final National Register of Citizens (NRC) and thousands of people battling uncertainty over whether they will make it to the list, organisations aligned with the

Sangh Parivar

have stepped up their campaign against publication of the citizenship rolls until these are “properly re-verified” and “made error-free”.

On Monday, hundreds of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists held a demonstration outside the office of the NRC coordinator here, demanding “re-verification” of each application for inclusion in the rolls before the final list is published.

Fearing the exclusion of a large number of Hindus, the

Hindu Jagran Manch

had staged demonstrations two days ago in 22 of the 30 districts of Assam, demanding postponement of the publication of the final NRC so that “no illegal migrant gets into it”.

“The NRC we are going to get on August 31 will leave out many genuine Indian citizens. If it is published in its present form, we will launch an agitation. Since there are instances of legacy data misuse, re-verification is essential,” manch president Mrinal Kumar Laskar said.

The BJP-led Sarbananda Sonowal government has also been critical of the process of updating the NRC. The state government argues that a foolproof NRC isn’t possible without proper re-verification of citizenship claims.

“Many Hindu victims of Partition and their descendants may not have made it to the NRC. If the final NRC doesn’t include them, it will have a serious impact on Assam’s identity and culture. We do not want another J&K. That is why we want re-verification,” BJP legislator Shiladitya Dev said.

Last month, the Supreme Court had rejected a petition filed by the state government seeking re-verification of NRC applications before the final list is made public. The process of updating the NRC started under the supervision of the apex court in 2010, when Congress was in government.

The

All Assam Students Union

, which was at the forefront of the anti-foreigner agitation that culminated in the Assam Accord, wants the final NRC to be published on the scheduled date.

Its general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said, “The Supreme Court has already rejected the demand for re-verification. Those who do not want the NRC process to be completed on time have political motives. The current protests are an attempt to derail the process of updating the NRC. If foreigners are included, the government should take the blame because the employees engaged in the process belong to it.”