Congress to fight legal battles for 'Indian citizens' left out of NRC

GUWAHATI: The Congress in Assam has alleged that the BJP-led government is using updation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) polarise Assam on religious lines ahead of parliamentary elections next year.

Religious minorities were excluded from the NRC updation process despite having valid documents, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Ripun Bora said said, promising to fight a legal battle for them.

“Congress will provide all the legal help to Indian citizens who are not included in the NRC,” he said.


Boral alleged there was interference in the Supreme Court- monitored NRC updation process. “We have ground reports that NRC officials have not properly verified documents, which will lead to the exclusion of several people."

He added that there was an increase in the instances of notices being served to Doubtful voters (D voters) and suspected foreigners.

There are 1.25 lakh doubtful voters. These voters are termed as doubtful voters as their identity is doubtful and their names are yet to be cleared by the Foreigners tribunal.

Bora alleged that despite Supreme Court allowing panchayat certificates as linkage documents, especially for married women, there were allegations of NRC officials not accepting them.

Around 29 lakh people have submitted panchayat certificates as a document to prove citizenship in the ongoing updation of NRC.

The first partial partial draft of NRC published on December 31, 2017 contained names around 1.90 crore people. The Apex court has extended the date of final draft publication by one month after work was hampered by floods. The final draft will be published on July 30.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saika, recently visited the Kalikajari village in the Morigaon district and interacted with 174 families whose members have been referred to Foreigners Tribunal by the Border Police.

These include names of family members of Moulavi Muhammed Amiruddin who was the first Deputy Speaker of the Assam Legislative Assembly.

Saikia claimed that villagers complained they were arbitrarily referred by the Border Police as suspected foreigners even though they had school certificates, duly registered land deal documents and entries in the voters lists and NRC entries of the pre-1971 period.

Saikia said that genuine Indian citizens were suffering mental and financial distress and that a thorough judicial probe should be conducted into the “arbitrariness” in tagging D voters and suspected foreigners.

"Majority of the people who got notices are from economically weaker sections. A judicial probe is needed on this,” he said.