The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), which spearheaded a six-year agitation against illegal migrants in the 1980s, on Wednesday alleged that certain pro-influx forces were trying to disrupt the ongoing exercise to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharjya said forged documents were found across the state in the recent past. It suggests that efforts are on to include illegal migrants in the final register, he added.
“We have information that certain pro-illegal migrants forces are trying to disrupt and delay the NRC update process,” Bhattacharya said.
AASU’s allegation came less than a month before the publication of the final NRC.
Following publication of the register’s draft on July 30 last year, a huge controversy cropped up over the exclusion of the names of 40.7 lakh people from it. The draft included names of 2.9 crore people of the total 3.29 crore applicants. The names of over a lakh more people were also excluded in a list published last month. The final NRC will be published on July 31.
Bhattacharya said the process of updating the NRC reached its final stage only because of the constant monitoring by the Supreme Court. He alleged that since the beginning of the process, certain forces were desperately trying to protect the interests of the foreigners living illegally in Assam and such forces were still trying to disrupt the process and create confusion among people.
The AASU leader added that the government should take strong action against anyone found to be involved in such a conspiracy.
Bhattacharya said verification of documents submitted along with claims and objections were in the final stage and appealed to all officers and staff involved in the process, including the state NRC coordinator, deputy commissioners, additional deputy commissioners, circle officers and others to ensure that no foreign national can get his or her name included in the register.
The process of identification of illegal migrants in the Assam has been widely debated and become a contentious issue in its politics.
A six-year agitation, demanding identification and deportation of illegal migrants, was launched by the AASU in 1979. It culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985, in presence of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Paralysed prisoner: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Centre and Assam government on the plea of a paralysed prisoner who has been declared a foreigner by a tribunal and is facing imminent deportation to Bangladesh.
Azizul Hoque was declared a foreigner by a tribunal in Assam in ex-parte proceedings as he failed to appear due to lower-limb paralysis, and has been lodged in a detention centre since March 24, 2017, according to the petition. Despite Hoque’s name appearing in the draft NRC of Assam as a citizen, the tribunal and the Gauhati High Court declared Hoque a foreigner on the grounds that neither he nor his representative appeared before the tribunal. The bench comprised of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose.
Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde and lawyer Anas Tanwir, appearing for Hoque, said the foreigners tribunal and the high court both erred in holding that the man was an illegal foreigner who needed to be deported.
“It is submitted that the high court dismissed the writ petition of the petitioner (Hoque) despite accepting the medical certificate certifying him to be suffering from lower limb paralysis. The name of the petitioner, along with his other family members appears in the draft NRC,” the plea said.
“It is most humbly submitted that the only ground on which a citizenship of the petitioner was taken away was his inability to depute someone to appear in his stead before the foreigners tribunal,” it said.
