Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen today said that the people who were left off the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India’s Assam are not Bangladeshi.

The minister came up with the reaction in an interview with Indian news channel --Times Now. About 19.7 lakh people were excluded from the NRC which was published today.

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Options for those excluded from Assam NRC

Responding to a query of the Indian news media, AK Abdul Momen said Indian Foreign Minister (External Affairs Minister) Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told him that this is purely an internal issue of India and Bangladesh doesn’t need to worry about it.

“Under no circumstances, Bangladesh would be affected,” Momen quoted Jaishankar.

Responding to another query on whether the people left out are from Bangladesh, Momen said, “I don’t think so. Because if there is any Bangladeshi they might have gone before 1947 or before 1971. So, they have been living there for years. We don’t think they are Bangladeshi.”  

“There is no reason why a Bangladeshi should move to India. Bangladesh is doing much better and therefore it does not look like there is any interest in any Bangladeshi to go to India. In Bangladesh, even the per capita income is comparatively higher than the cost of living. There is no possibility of moving to India,” the minister also said.

“I don’t know how they have counted the numbers,” he added.