NRC a 'game' used by political parties to secure votes, claims Ranjan Gogoi

KOLKATA: Ranjan Gogoi, the former Chief Justice of India (CJI), today compared the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to a "game" that none of the political parties actually wish to implement.

 

Asked about the NRC at the ongoing India Today Conclave, Gogoi said, "There is book called 'The Game called NRC (by Mrinal Talukdar). Nobody wants the NRC -- whether it the Congress government or the BJP government. The Courts can only do so much and no further. The Court has done it. There are no regrets. It is a vision document and its a document for the future."

 

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According to Gogoi, the 'illegal migrants' are told (by a political party) that they should vote for that particular party as they will be protected. On the other hand, the other party tells the indigenous people and says that they will expel the migrants. "This the game -- one political party protects the migrants for the vote, the other political party expels the migrants for the vote. This has been going on in Assam for the last 50 years," Gogoi said.

 

Gogoi, taking a dig at Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's promise to give a "foolproof NRC" after the ensuing Assembly elections in April of 2021, said: "What is wrong with the current NRC? It is a court-mandated order. Implement it."

 

The final updated NRC for Assam, published 31 August 2019, contained 31 million names out of 33 million population.

 

It left out about 1.9 million applicants, who seem to be divided roughly equally between Bengali Hindus, Bengali Muslims and other Hindus from various parts of India.