Assam: Is BJP keen on politicising Bangla 'infiltration' rather than fixing it?

At a time when the BJP is raking up the bogie of reported Bangladeshi infiltration in election-bound Jharkhand, its government in Assam is seemingly giving a quiet burial to NRC, once touted as the panacea to the problem of illegal immigrants.

The much-hyped updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) has been lying in cold storage for more than five years since its publication on August 31, 2019.

To complete the process, the state coordinator of the NRC needed to hand over the list of citizenship data -- the list of exclusions and inclusions -- to the state and Central governments and the Registrar General of India. As per the Supreme Court’s directive of August 13, 2019, before handing over the data, it should be secured by adopting the security regime followed in securing the Aadhar data.

Assam government at fault

The state coordinator, it is learnt, has not been able to complete the securing process due to “lack of funds”.

Further, rejection slips needed to be issued to those whose names did not figure in the updated NRC list so that they could appeal to the Foreigners Tribunals against their exclusion. The rejection slip basically contains the reason(s) cited for the rejection in the speaking order. This process, too, has not been started yet, raising doubt about the fate of the updated NRC.

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The Assam government is delaying the process on the pretext of re-verification of 20 per cent of the names in the NRC in the bordering districts, a demand already rejected by the court.

A dormant situation

The re-verification in any way should not have delayed the issuance of the rejection slip. “The re-verification, even if it is done, concerns those who have already made it to the NRC whereas the rejection slip is to be issued to those who were excluded. There is no conflict. Both the process can go on simultaneously,” pointed out Dharmananda Deb, a former member of the foreigners' tribunal in Silchar and a senior lawyer.

“The problem is neither the state government nor the Supreme Court (under whose monitoring the process was conducted) and not even the civil society organisations that pushed for the NRC are now showing interest to take the process to its logical conclusion,” he added.

How many infiltrators?

Deb said if the apex court was truly keen on concluding the process, it could have taken cognizance and issued appropriate directives to the concerned authorities to issue the rejection slip suo motu.

The issue of alleged infiltration of migrants from Bangladesh is deliberately kept alive as a socio-political issue for years churning out hypothetical figures of the presence of 50-70 lakh Bangladeshis in Assam, said Fazlu Zzaman Mazumder, an advocate in the Gauhati High Court.

Since the updated NRC has debunked this flimsy figure of migrants, the BJP government is not accepting it.

Aadhaar biometrics unlocked

Skepticism over the future of NRC 2019 has further grown as the Aadhaar biometrics of those whose names did not figure in the citizenship list were unlocked last month in a hush-hush manner.

Over 19 lakh people had been excluded from the NRC after six years of painstaking process of residency and legacy document verification that cost the state exchequer more than Rs 1,600 crore.

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Over 27 lakh people's biometric details, including 19.06 lakh applicants who could not make it to the NRC, were locked, preventing them from availing themselves of the Aadhar Card.

Confusing figures

However, there is some confusion about the actual figure. The Assam government initially stated that the biometric details of 27.43 lakh individuals, collected during NRC re-verification, were locked. Later, it claimed the number was 9.35 lakh, clearly displaying the state government's facetiousness on a serious subject such as the NRC.

After five years of an ordeal, biometrics have recently been unlocked.

“The government of India has already unblocked the Aadhar cards (that were on hold because of locking of biometric data),” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told an election rally in Bengali-dominated Barak Valey on Tuesday (November 5).

Affected people pose questions

He, however, did not mention any figure nor clarify whether those who are excluded from the NRC list could also apply for the Aadhar, which is not a citizenship document anyway.

Several people, The Federal reached out to confirm that their biometric details were unlocked last month.

“The names of my wife, son and daughter were not included in the final NRC list though my name was there. Their biometric data which were blocked after the exclusion were unlocked last month,” stated an Udalguri resident on the condition of anonymity. “Does this mean, my wife and children are now acknowledged as Indian citizens,” he asked.

A legal paradox

“The unlocking of biometrics raises another uncomfortable reality for many in Assam -- those who were excluded from the final NRC can now get Aadhaar cards, but their citizenship status remains in limbo. Without official rejection orders from the NRC, these individuals cannot appeal their citizenship cases in foreigners’ tribunals. In this odd legal paradox, they are given access to Aadhaar while simultaneously being marked as stateless, adding another layer of uncertainty to their lives,” stated the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), an Assam-based rights body. The CJP helped over 12 lakh Indian citizens compile documents and file applications for inclusion of names in the NRC.

The Coordination Committee Against CAA, another influential civil society organisation, also moved the Registrar General of India (RGI) urging that the NRC process be completed without further delay.

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Registrar General urged to act

“The NRC was updated based on a cut-off date of March 25, 1971. The Supreme Court, in its judgement (On October 17) relating to clause 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 has upheld it. We, therefore, feel that there is no reason for the RGI to keep the updated NRC in cold storage,” the group said in a communique.

The completion of the NRC process would be “hailed by all sections of the people, except those politically driven to oppose it,” it added.