Guwahati, March 25: The All Assam Minorities Students Union (AAMSU) today insisted on making the 1971 electoral rolls as the base for National Register of Citizens (NRC) update in Assam.
The students' body even threatened non-cooperation with the exercise of updating the NRC if their demand was not met.
AAMSU president Abdur Rahim Ahmed made the statement before reporters after a delegation of the students' union led by him met chief minister Tarun Gogoi here today.
The union submitted a memorandum to the chief minister on the definition of Assamese people where it was stated that "...all persons, except those who will be detected and deported by due process of law, and who are permanently residing in Assam, assimilating themselves with Assam's socio-economic, cultural aspects irrespective of their caste, creed, religion and language and are thinking of well being of Assam shall be defined as Assamese".
It demanded that March 24, 1971, should be the cut-off date for NRC update and to fix the definition of Assamese people.
The students' union is opposed to the demand made by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and 25 other organisations representing ethnic groups of the state that only people whose names figured in the NRC of 1951 should be termed Assamese people.
Yesterday, a delegation of the union met Speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi and submitted a memorandum to him stating their views on the definition of Assamese.
The Speaker told the delegation that the definition would have to be fixed through a give-and-take policy and urged it not to be rigid.
Today, several intellectuals, including public activist Deben Dutta, academicians Noni Gopal Mahanta and Akhil Ranjan Dutta, former president of the Asam Sahitya Sabha, Kanak Sen Deka, and journalist Adip Kumar Phukan met the Speaker and put forward their views on the definition of Assamese.
In a related development, BJP MLA from Silchar, Dilip Kumar Paul, told reporters outside the Assembly that all Hindu Bengalis who have migrated to Assam from Bangladesh because of persecution should be granted Indian citizenship.
