Congress Lok Sabha member from Nalbari, Abdul Khaleque, on Friday welcomed the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) as historic and slammed the BJP leaders and others who are opposing it.

At a news conference here, Khaleque said, “The NRC is the result of a six-year process involving a large number of people and a lot of money. I am totally in support of the NRC as a historic and constitutional document prepared on a scientific basis under the watch of the Supreme Court. Those opposing it are speaking against the Supreme Court. The government should not say anything against it as the NRC was prepared by its employees. Reservations about the cut-off date should have been made earlier. The Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha had been fighting for 1951 as the cut-off year before the court for a long time but many are speaking of it now. Even the All Assam Students’ Union should stick to its own commitment and not be swayed by outside influences.”

He said the BJP government at the Centre and state had filed affidavits in the court, accepting 1971 as the cut-off date and they had no right to say otherwise.

Khaleque also expressed surprise at the absence of tweets on the NRC by people like chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, leaving finance minister Himanta Biswa Sar-ma to make statements which are “misleading” the people.

He asked the BJP government to put up electrified fences along the India-Bangladesh border to deter infiltrators.

“The NRC has excluded Indian citizens but the people are not guinea pigs. They have been summoned for seven to eight hearings in far-off places. It is a violation of their human rights that the excluded people have to establish their citizenship in foreigners tribunals. It is the duty of all parties, irrespective of their affiliation, to help these people. The Centre should talk to the Bangladesh government about repatriation of their identified citizens, otherwise, a large number of people will be stateless,” he said.

Khaleque’s stand assumes significance because it comes at a time when senior party colleague and former chief minister Tarun Gogoi has expressed his displeasure over the NRC in a letter to the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

PCC president Ripun Bora has said they were happy because the exclusion list has come down by half compared to the final draft and they were unhappy because still nearly 50 per cent people, mostly Indians, have been excluded.

Khaleque did not rule out re-verification of the documents of those excluded or new legislation enabling their inclusion.

The parliamentarian also struck out at those calling the NRC “waste paper”.

Gogoi is among those who has called the historic register “waste paper”.

The draft list saw over 40 lakh excluded while the final NRC excluded 19.06 lakh applicants.