Guwahati: BJP president Amit Shah's statement on Tuesday that 40 lakh people who missed the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam are " ghuspetiya or infiltrators" from Bangladesh, has left 70-year old Phulbaso Devi of Fakirganj in lower Assam's Dhubri district fuming.
Devi, who was married to Jagdew Pandey, a former Assam police constable in 1962, had submitted a 1943 land document of her father Gajendra Thakur in Jharkhand's Sahebganj district but did not find her name in the draft NRC. "How can my mother be a ghuspetiya? Our ancestors are from undivided Bihar, not from Bangladesh. It is insulting that all those who missed the draft NRC are called ghuspetiya. My mother was very angry when she heard Amit Shah saying on television that those who missed the NRC are ghuspetiya," Phulbaso's son Manoj Kumar Pandey told The Telegraph over phone on Thursday morning from Fakirganj. The names of all 18 members of her family, including her three sons - Manoj, Dilip and Pradip - figured in the draft NRC released here on Monday, barring hers.
"Ma was worried when her name was found missing but we consoled her saying we will clear her name during the claims period. But she is again worried after Amit Shah's statement," Manoj added.
Manoj, 40, who runs a cell phone and accessories shop at Fakirganj, a small town on the bank of the Brahmaputra, about 250km west from here, had submitted land documents of his grandfather and the 1966 voters' list containing his father's name as a legacy data. "Our politicians must know that a large number of people who missed the NRC draft have origins in other states of the country like Bihar, Bengal and Jharkhand. So if they call us all infiltrators, it is insulting and insensitive. The government is asking people to show restraint and not to make inflammatory comments as the NRC is a very sensitive subject. But why are those in power (Amit Shah) making such irresponsible and insensitive statements?" he asked.
The final draft of the NRC, containing 2.89 crore names, was published here on Monday but 40.07 lakh people failed to make it to the draft. The government said those whose names are missing from the draft cannot be tagged as foreigners and they would be able to submit necessary documents during the claims period from August 30 to September 28. The NRC 1951 is being updated only in Assam with March 24, 1971 as a cut-off date to solve the state's long foreigner problem.
Pradip is not sure why his mother's name is missing from the NRC but suspects that the land document of her father was perhaps not verified and sent back to Assam as requested by the NRC officials here.
The NRC officials informed the Supreme Court in March that 5.7 lakh documents submitted by applicants having their origin in other states were sent to 25 states and Union territories for verification but only two to seven per cent of these documents were returned by states, including Bengal and Bihar.
Pradip said his father Jagdew had shifted to Fakirganj from Sabalpur in Bihar's Chapra district in 1960 and joined as an Assam police constable two years later. He, however, resigned in 1974 and started a business at Fakirganj. He died in 2002.
Pradip's cousin Anil Pandey, also a businessman in Fakirganj, had submitted land documents of his grandfather in Bihar, but found his name missing. However, his wife and son made it to the draft list.
