Indian govt allays fears over Assam citizens' list

The Indian government yesterday clarified that people whose names are not included in the final list of citizens residing in the northeastern state of Assam will not automatically be declared foreigners.

Exclusion from the final NRC does not mean automatic declaration of anyone as foreigner. Once the final document is published, anyone who is dissatisfied can always go to a foreigners' tribunal in the state to get justice, a home ministry spokesperson said.

The statement was made amidst tensions that Muslims will be kept out of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens on the suspicion of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The clarifications came a day after Home Minister Rajnath Singh said there was no need to panic and all bona fide Indians will be given adequate opportunities to prove their citizenship.

Those who don't find their names in the final draft of the NRC, to be published on July 30, will get a month's time to file claims and objections in addition to subsequent judicial recourse, the home ministry spokesperson said.

He added that the NRC is only a draft and, after its publication, adequate opportunities for filing claims and objections will be available for those whose names are excluded from it.

"The NRC authorities will give a one-month window when all objections and complaints will be examined after giving a proper hearing to the complainants. Only thereafter, the final NRC will be published," the official said.

In Assam, there are around 300 foreigners' tribunals.

The spokesperson also said that no one should be apprehensive about the exercise, adding that adequate central paramilitary forces were dispatched to Assam to assist the state administration to deal with law and order, if the situation arises, following the publication of the final draft.

The exercise has instilled fear mainly among Muslims in Assam after BJP came to power in the northeastern state for the first time in 2016 on the electoral plank of acting against illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh.