The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling on Tuesday that re-verification of applicants for inclusion in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) cannot be ordered based on certain parameters suggested by at least two petitioners.
The AASU questioned the seriousness of the government asking why it did not appeal to the Supreme Court earlier for re-verification instead of making the plea at the eleventh hour. The final NRC is going to be published on August 31.
“The re-verification plea of the government is totally a political move,” said AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi.
Both the Centre and Assam government had filed petitions with the Supreme Court, which has been monitoring the NRC update, seeking re-verification of 20 per cent names included in the complete draft NRC from districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent names elsewhere.
The AASU said the government would be responsible if names of foreigners are included in the NRC. “The government had the power of conducting suo motu verification of documents of doubtful people but it did not. Besides, neither the government nor the political parties filed any objection,” Gogoi said.
After the court order, Assam Public Works, an NGO which had also filed five petitions with the apex court seeking 100 per cent re-verification, asked who will take responsibility if the NRC contains names of foreigners.
“We are not free from apprehension regarding the NRC which will be published on August 31, ignoring all our re-verification pleas. We had filed five petitions seeking re-verification but all were rejected,” said APW president Aabhijeet Sharma.
On Tuesday, the court also directed that NRC data be maintained in the same manner like Aadhaar data to ensure its security. NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela had brought to the notice of the court how the Assam government had disclosed district-wise data of people included or exluded from the draft NRC.
President of the Assam unit of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Rakesh Das, said on Tuesday that the people of the state will never accept an NRC with anomalies.
“As far as we know, names of many indigenous people have been left out. Instead, illegal inhabitants are getting their names included in the NRC. The NRC was being updated due to the threat posed by the illegal immigrants to the linguistic, cultural and social fabric of the state. If the sole reason is compromised, then the updated NRC will be of no use. Hajela, in the name of re-verification, has created an NRC which is full of illegal immigrants. It will never be accepted,” he said.
Additional reporting by Hiranya Barman