Assam's NRC update triggers war of words between Congress and opposition

GUWAHATI: With less than a year left for the assembly elections in Assam, the politics over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) has heated up. Assam government has sought tweaking of NRC modalities and wants the 2014 voter list as an additional document for NRC update.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh during his visit to Assam recently stated that NRC is updated under the Supreme Court's directive. “We will ensure that Indian national interest is not hampered,“ he said.

Former minister and Congress leader Himanta Biswa Sarma has filled a petition in the Supreme Court, urging the court to “Declare people belonging to ST, SC and OBC people as original inhabitants of Assam for the purpose of NRC and allow direct entry in NRC, allow entry of all Indian citizens who came to Assam post 1971 including Bengali and Hindi speaking people on the basis of genuine documents and not to insist for linkage certificate of minor children if the citizenship of their parents are fully established.“

NRC updation base requires establishing linkages with forefathers who have been citizens of India. Gogoi argued that several people have failed to establish linkages despite being genuine Indian citizens.

Gogoi said in NRC's update process, state government has a limited role. Assam government has formed a cabinet sub-committee to look into the problems faced by the people while getting their names enlisted in the NRC.

BJP has accused Congress of trying to use the NRC update for political gain ahead of next year's assembly election. Opposition party, Asom Gana Party ( AGP) alleged that the Congress is hatching a conspiracy to replace the names of the indigenous people with the names of the illegal Bangladeshi migrants in the NRC to keep its votebank politics buoyant.