NRC in Assam is Quite Ironic and a Mockery: Indigenous Peoples' Body

Guwahati, September 16, 2019:

North-East Forum for Indigenous Peoples (NEFIP) has appealed for the implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) alike legislations by the respective State Assemblies of NE States (viz. Inner Line Permit, Mizoram Maintenance of Household Registers Bill-2019, Registration of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN), Manipur People’s Bill-2018, etc.).

Speaking on the matter, Vice President of NEFIP, Assam, Bikram Hanse stressed issue related to the NRC and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, particularly in Assam.

Starting with NRC, Bikram Hanse said that the NRC is good for the indigenous people, but the way it is executed, implemented is a complete fiasco in Assam. He added, “Over few lakhs of indigenous tribes-people are out from the final NRC list. And in contrary many non-indigenous aliens are included in the register. The NRC in Assam is quite ironic to what indigenous peoples aspired for. It looks like it is completely a stage-managed and a pre-planned work.”

Hanse added, “Many genuine citizens are out, and many foreigners are in! Out of 19 lakhs, it looks like more than half of it is designed in such a way that they will have very easy means to get into the register. There are instances flushing out everywhere where parents’ names are recorded but the names of the children are not recorded or vice versa. Gradually finally there won’t be any foreigners to be deported to Bangladesh.”

Claiming the NRC to be a mockery and manipulation upon the indigenous of people Assam and Northeast, the NEFIP member added, “The Home Ministry has acknowledged fact that there are over 2 crores (20 million) of Bangladeshis living in the country and most of them happened to be in the region of NER, but today at our dismay the number climbed down to very negligible figure, and that too with the inclusion of indigenous tribes and communities of Assam.”

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