The Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha, the only registered national organisation of Indian Gorkhas, on Sunday said Gorkhas wouldn’t approach foreigners’ tribunals to prove their citizenship as they don’t originate from the “Specified Territory” of the Assam Accord.
The term Specified Territory in the 1985 tripartite pact refers to Bangladesh.
“Gorkhas of Assam won’t go to the foreigners’ tribunal (FT) to prove their citizenship,” Sukhman Moktan, national president of the Gorkha organisation (BGP), told reporters.
“Gorkhas being tried in the foreigners’ tribunal is an insult after being Indians and we can file a defamation case against the system for challenging the Gorkhas’ citizenship and the Nepali-speaking population being taken to the foreigners’ tribunal. No Indian Gorkha should be left out of the National Register of Citizens.”
Moktan said a BGP national delegation had travelled across Assam. “During the weeklong tour (till Sunday), we met people excluded from the NRC and arbitrarily marked D-voters (doubtful voters) and their descendants whose citizenship is challenged and being directed to go to the foreigners’ tribunals, according to NRC guidelines, while a recent ministry of home affairs notification exempts the Gorkhas (from the purview of the tribunals). This is an attempt of a few vested interests to disrespect Indian Gorkhas who are original inhabitants as is proved by our historically… recorded presence since centuries.”
Nityananda Upadhyay, president, Assam State Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha, said 22,000 to 25,000 Gorkhas have been marked as D-voters and about 1 lakh Gorkhas had failed to make it to the NRC final list.
BGP national vice-president Yam Ghimire said: “Gauhati High Court had directed the government of Assam… to file a fresh writ petition before an appropriate bench in order to legally implement the home ministry notification BB/PK/SS release Id 1549227 issued on October 10, 2018, by the Press Information Bureau. But the Assam government is yet to file a fresh case in the high court. This has jeopardised the case of thousands of Gorkhas who have been fighting to get rid of the D-voter tag against their names and the foreigners tribunals.”
Asked if the BGP was planning to take the state government to the court, Upadhyay said: “The BGP is one of the parties to the NRC case in the Supreme Court. If the government of Assam doesn’t do its duty, as directed by the Union of India, the BGP will take a policy decision to take the matter to the Supreme Court… and make the state government party to it and contest the case to ensure that Gorkhas are not forced to go to foreigners’ tribunals as if Gorkhas originated in the Specified Territory of Assam Accord.”
Nityananda Upadhyay, president, Assam State Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha, said 22,000 to 25,000 Gorkhas have been marked as D-voters and about 1 lakh Gorkhas had failed to make it to the NRC final list.
“Neither the border police nor the foreigners tribunal has issued any D-voter notification to the people but their names have been excluded from the NRC for having the D-tag behind their names in voters list,” he said.
Upadhyay also sought re-verification of the NRC.
“The whole NRC process seems to be a defective one. It needs scrutiny and review must be done. A document accepted by one district was simply rejected by another district,” he said.
A high-level BGP delegation on Saturday met Assam chief secretary Alok Kumar and apprised him about members of community who will have to appear before foreigners tribunals after exclusion from the NRC though it has been exempted by an order of the home ministry.
BGP Northeast secretary Lakpa Lama said: “Yesterday, we urged chief secretary to take appropriate measures so that a fresh case is filed at the earliest in the high court and Gorkhas are delivered justice.”
Kumar on Saturday assured that Dispur will consider their suggestion to form an empowered committee to dispose of cases if it comes under the ambit of NRC guidelines and if it is in conflict, legal opinion will be sought.
