India braces for Pakistan attack on NRC at UN Human Rights Council meet

As it prepares to take on Pakistan at the UN Human Rights Council over its allegations of human rights violations in J&K, India is also bracing itself for an imminent attack by Islamabad over Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC).

India expects Pakistan to use the exclusion of 19 lakh Assam residents from the NRC as fodder for its propaganda about Modi government's "communal bias," and is prepared to rebut what it calls "calumny." Pakistani leaders, including its PM Imran Khan, have already enlisted NRC as a prop for the bellicose rhetoric unleashed against India in the wake of the decisions on J&K, and government sources here reckon that the effort will move into top gear at the 42nd session of the HRC slated for September 9-27.

Sources said India, which has decided to augment its presence at the HRC, plans to rebut Pakistan’s likely effort to raise NRC exclusions to accuse India of anti-Muslim bias by pointing out that the Supreme Court, and not the government of the day, was the principal driver for the NRC exercise. “This is not an executive-driven process. The process is being monitored by the Supreme Court of India directly. It has set the deadlines for all steps that have been taken so far,” said a source familiar with preparations for the looming showdown with Pakistan.


Officials also stressed that NRC flowed from the Assam Accord signed in 1985 between the government of India, the state government of Assam, the All Assam Students’ Uni- on (AASU) and

All Assam Gan Sangram Parishad in response to the “anti-foreigner” upsurge. “The fact is that you have more Hindu organisations protesting agai- nst NRC than Muslim bodies. But since it is inconvenient for them, Pakistan will seek to shove it under the carpet at the HRC session,” a source said.

“At this stage, this implies that a total of some 33 million cases have been considered, with a total of 1.90 million people not having been included in the final list. From a preliminary assessment, it seems that the ratio of excluded persons are as per the proportion of different communities in the overall population,” the source added.

Officials also said those who don’t figure in the NRC published on August 31 have not been rendered “stateless” or “foreigner”. The law empowers them to appeal their exclusions within 120 days before tribunals. Two hundred tribunals have been added to the existing 100, and the Assam government plans to set up 200 more by December.

Those who still fail to make it to the register will have the option to move the high court and, eventually, the SC. “Only a judicial process may declare a person a foreigner within the meaning of the Foreigners Act of 1946,” an official said, adding that India will put up all these facts to counter the propaganda by Pakistan which has sought to incite communal tensions with calls for jihad.