Assam cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said there would be no need for the state to push for a fresh National Register of Citizens or be a part of the proposed nationwide NRC if the Supreme Court allows re-verification of 20 per cent names from the border districts in the updated register.
The Centre and the Assam government had in July 2019 submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court, praying for re-verification of 20 per cent of the names in the complete draft NRC (published on July 30, 2018) in the districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent names from other districts but the court, which monitored the NRC update process in Assam, had rejected the plea.
“If the Supreme Court allows 20 per cent re-verification in the border districts and there is no mistake in the re-verification, we will accept it (the updated NRC) and don’t need a national one. If there are numerous mistakes again in the re-verification, we may approach the Supreme Court for complete review,” he said. “We are sure lots of mistakes will be found out in the re-verification process,” he added.
He said the Assam government would not accept the present NRC under any circumstances. The final NRC was published on August 31 this year with over 19 lakh exclusions.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that there was no talk on countrywide NRC during his tenure, he said, “The PM yesterday (Sunday) said there is no plan for a nationwide NRC. So we have to pursue only in the Supreme Court. If it does not listen to us, we will have to approach the government of India.”
“When there is a national NRC, we should join the national NRC. If there is no national NRC, then Assam NRC should be foolproof,” Sarma said.
CAA arrests
Sarma also said that Assam police have so far registered 244 cases and arrested 393 persons involved in vandalism of public property during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in the state. In addition, 28 cases have been registered and 10 persons arrested for posting provocative and offensive statements in social media since December 9.
He said of the 10 arrested, five were released immediately on bail while the rest were sent to judicial custody.
“In addition, 23 persons were picked up and given counselling in front of their parents in police stations and were allowed to go. We could delete 58 of the 206 posts,” Sarma, who was flanked by cabinet minister Keshab Mahanta and Tezpur MP Pallab Lochan Das, told reporters here.
He said 25 of the 206 posts had originated from outside Assam or the country.
“Three of them are from Dubai. Efforts are on to find out the origin of the remaining posts,” he said.
Sarma said the government has no issue if someone stages protest against CAA in a democratic way. “But we will not tolerate damage to public properly in the name of protest,” he added.
He said some people were trying to disrupt peace in tea garden areas by spreading rumours that the government would settle foreigners, who will be coming to the state because of CAA, on tea garden land.
“I want to clarify that the state government had no such plan. Those who will be getting citizenship because of CAA are already settled. The surplus land of tea gardens belongs to tea garden workers only. No other person has a right to it,” he said.
He also said the government has identified the rumourmongers and would start recording their speeches and statements.
