NEW DELHI – India’s foreign ministry has again defended a controversialcitizenship register in northeast Assam after criticism from the UnitedNations, saying the almost two million people excluded from the list wouldnot become “stateless”.
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) was drawn up by India’s rulingBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — which also runs Assam state — saying itwas necessary to detect “foreign infiltrators”.
Critics say it is being used by the BJP to push a Hindu nationalist agendaand marginalise the state’s large minority of Muslims — many who fledthere when East Pakistan broke violently from Islamabad in 1971 to becomeBangladesh.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, had on Sunday calledon New Delhi to avoid stripping people of their nationality, saying it”would be an enormous blow to global efforts to eradicate statelessness”.
But foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar defended the process, sayingthe NRC “does not make the excluded person ‘stateless'” and any decisionstaken would be consistent with Indian laws and its “democratic traditions”.
“It (the NRC) also does not make him or her a ‘foreigner’, within the legalmeaning of the term,” Kumar said in a statement released late Sunday.
“For those who are not in the final list, (they) will not be detained andwill continue to enjoy all the rights as before till they have exhaustedall the remedies available under the law.”
Assam is largely surrounded by Bangladesh and has long seen influxes ofmigrants — even during Britain’s colonial rule.
But under the NRC, only those who can demonstrate they or their forebearswere in India before 1971 can be included in the list.
Those left off have 120 days to appeal at so-called Foreigners Tribunals,and can also appeal their case through the courts.
Critics have said the NRC process reflects the BJP’s goal to serve Hindus,with a large chunk of those excluded expected to be Muslims.
But there has been growing outrage among local BJP leaders, who claim manyBengali-speaking Hindus — a key vote bank for the party — had also beenleft off the list.
It is not yet clear what will happen to people who have exhausted theirlegal avenues. In theory, they can be placed in one of six detentioncentres with a view to possible deportation to Bangladesh.
Dhaka has said previously the NRC is an “internal matter” for India andnone of its citizens had moved across the border since 1971. -APP/AFP