The Assam BJP on Saturday said it was unhappy with the final National Register of Citizens that was published in the morning and pushed for a nationwide NRC.
Assam BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass told newspersons that the names of many indigenous people and those from other parts of the country who live in Assam did not feature in the final NRC. He said if a nationwide NRC is prepared, they will be able to include their names in it.
“The names of many indigenous people have been left out of the final NRC. We assume the figure will not be less than two lakh,” he said.
Besides, he said, the number of people excluded from the final NRC (19,06,657) was nowhere close to the figures presented to the Assam Legislative Assembly and Parliament earlier.
“We are very unhappy with the final NRC. We will now request our central leadership to prepare a nationwide NRC,” he said.
Dass said former chief minister Hiteswar Saikia had told the Assembly in 1992 that the number of illegal migrants in the state would be around 30 lakh. “Later, then Union home minister Indrajit Gupta told Parliament that the number would be 40 lakh. Since these figures were given in Assembly and Parliament, people had believed it. But today’s figure is nowhere close to it,” he said, adding that the final NRC belies the earlier figures.
Dass was once again critical of NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela for advocating against re-verification of documents. In July this year, the Centre and the Assam government appealed for re-verification of 20 per cent names in bordering districts and 10 per cent names in other districts. Hajela told the court that during settlement of the 36,26,630 claims, the NRC authorities had already re-verified 27 per cent of documents. After Hajela’s statement, the court rejected the government’s plea. Dass had also criticised Hajela on this issue on August 26.
Without naming the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), Dass took a dig at the organisation. “Even those who had distributed sweets after publication of the final draft are now saying they are not happy,” he said.
AASU members had distributed sweets when the complete draft NRC, published on July 30, 2018, found 40 lakh people ineligible for inclusion. On Saturday, AASU leaders said they were not happy with the final NRC and would approach the Supreme Court seeking remedy.