Assam | 95-year-old Man Commits Suicide Fearing NRC Exclusion

Boko, May 26, 2019:

A tragic incident has occured in Suntoli Selesuti in Boko located in Kamrup (R) district of Assam as an elderly man has committed suicide on May 25, barely a month ahead of the publication of final draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 31. The man, who has been identified as Ashraf Ali, allegedly took his own life by ingesting poison.

Ali, who was 95 years old, committed suicide in front of the Selesuti school. He had been missing since Saturday evening, and search was on to locate him. The nonagenarian's corpse was finally found in front of the school on Sunday.

Speculation about Ali's suicide – allegedly due to the humiliation of being declared a ‘foreigner’ by a National Register of Citizens (NRC) notice – is rife in this small town in Assam.

It may be mentioned that this is not the first incident of a person committing suicide fearing exclusion from the NRC. In fact, a huge number of suicides took place ahead of the publication of the first draft which sent alarm bells ringing.

Meanwhile, the Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has called for cooperation from people of the state which was extended during the publication of first and final drafts of NRC in maintaining law and order situation in the state.

The Chief Minister has also said that the whole process of NRC is being monitored and supervised by Supreme Court of India in a very transparent manner and the state government is extending its full support to ensure that no genuine Indian citizen was left out of the NRC.

But despite Sonowal's assurances, minority student organization AAMSU has alleged that there are many discrepancies in the NRC process and has appealed the Government to ensure that a fair final draft of the NRC is published.

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