BJP national general secretary and Northeast in-charge Ram Madhav on Tuesday hoped that the identity of the 19 lakh applicants left out of the final NRC will be clear within a month.
Madhav’s statement comes at a time when public disco-urse is rife with speculation about the number of people left out of various communities and religions leading to protests. “We are yet to know who the 19 lakh people left out of the final NRC are. We do not know which group or area they belong to. It will be clear in a few weeks or a month,” Madhav said at a conclave during the launch of news channel, NE News, here. The channel, a joint initiative of Prag News and ITV Network, will be telecast in 10 different northeastern languages.
Madhav said everyone should welcome the BJP’s move to prepare the NRC across the country. He said among the excluded people, a good number belongs to Bengali Hindus and reiterated his party’s resolution to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
The programme was also attended by Assam governor Jagdish Mukhi and DoNER minister Jitendra Singh.
“Assam is going through an unprecedented phase of development which re-necessitates and re-emphasises the importance of development journalism for paying sustained coverage on the events dealing with the improvement of state affairs,” Mukhi said.
Singh talked about the development activities which have taken place in the Northeast during the past five years.
Prag News chairman-cum-managing director Sanjive Narayan said two media groups joining hands would help send the voice of the Northeast to other parts of the country, especially to the policy makers in New Delhi.
Sit-in
The All Assam Bengali Youth Students Federation on Tuesday staged a sit-in for three hours at Bongaigaon seeking inclusion of names of Hindu Bengalis excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Federation members and supporters shouted slogans against NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela near Chilarai flyover in the town.
“Hajela has hatched a conspiracy to ensure Hindu Bengal citizens are excluded from the NRC,” alleged federation president Mahananda Sarkar.
Over 12 lakh Bengali citizens have been excluded from the NRC despite having documents proving they migrated to Assam before 1971, said the federation’s Bongaigaon unit president Samrat Bhowal.
The federation demanded the state government to include all Hindu Bengalis in the NRC by accepting their documents, stop harassment in the name of doubtful voters and to release those languishing in the detention camps.
Additional reporting by Tejesh Tripathy in Bongaigaon
