Guwahati: The National Register of Citizens (NRC) was considered to be an exercise that may have brought an end to the four-decade-old politics of foreigners in Assam, but just before its final publication most political parties in the state, including the ruling BJP, have started questioning its credibility, saying that it may not be error-free.
Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday that the purpose of updating the NRC had now become futile, and a way should be devised to exclude more people living in districts near the Bangladesh border. “We have started working in consultation with the Centre to devise a new mechanism to make Assam free from foreigners.”
The NRC authorities in the state have, meanwhile, made all arrangements to publish the NRC at 10 am August 31. Sources said the NRC will be published online, besides making the list available at more than 2,500 NRC Seva Kendra at 10 am on Saturday.
Asking people to see the NRC as a simple document, Mr Sarma said: “We lost confidence the day we came to know that only six per cent names were dropped in frontier districts like Dhubri and Goalpara, while the names of 16 per cent of residents were excluded in the tribal-dominated district of Karbi Anglong.”
He said there was no point in making it a mega-event. “The target should be to devise a mechanism to drop names in Dhubri, Goalpara and other border districts which had the domination of illegal immigrants,” he said.
The BJP’s apprehensions stem from the growing perception of a large number of Hindu Bengalis failing to find a place in the NRC. Though there is no official confirmation or records on these facts, state BJP leaders have rejected the NRC.
