Leading intellectuals, educationists, senior journalists, human rights activists of the country and a retired Supreme Court judge have derided the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in an interim report which was made public on Sunday, citing that the bill was an act of irresponsibility of the government as it would only worsen the already excessive burden on Assam’s land and resources.

The report was prepared on the basis of a two-day public hearing by retired Supreme Court judge Gopala Gowda, former monitor for minorities of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Harsh Mander, senior advocate and human rights activist Colin Gonsalves and others on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the citizenship bill.

A panel, based on testimonies of people excluded from the citizenship exercise and on arguments at the other end of the spectrum, prepared the interim report. The final report is expected to be tabled before the Supreme Court.

In its conclusion and recommendations of the interim report prepared by the 16-member panel, the report cited that “historical injustice has been done to the people of Assam by successive governments at both the state and Centre by not taking responsibility for migration into the state of Assam and by thrusting the entire burden on people”.

It was, however, the contentious debate over the bill that the panel took a serious note which underlined in the report that “there is no doubt that the bill must be immediately repealed not merely because it discriminates against the Muslims but the enactment of the bill was the height of the government’s irresponsibility and political manoeuvring at its worst”.

“General view of the people is that the citizenship bill should go. If we look in the interim report, it is very clear that our opposition is not only on account of discrimination against the Muslims, but also on account of a larger issue which is adding pressure on Assam’s land and resources. Our opposition is two-fold. The bill was not carefully thought. We do not want or do not think that people of Assam deserve another blow of this kind,” Gonsalves said.

The report also recommended that “sensitive areas in Assam and particularly the tribal areas need extensive protection and effective monitoring to prevent further demographic decline”.