Opposition calls Assam 'banana republic' after government decides to link NRC with Aadhaar

Guwahati: Opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress on Thursday criticised the Assam government’s decision to make NRC application a pre-condition for obtaining an Aadhaar card, stating the state has turned into a "banana republic" under CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and BJP.

In an effort to link the Aadhaar card with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Assam government on Wednesday decided that all applications for the unique identity card will be rejected if the applicant or their family had not applied for the NRC.

The decision was taken in view of infiltration attempts by citizens of trouble-hit Bangladesh, Sarma said at a press conference.

"The problem of fake beneficiaries is huge in Assam. Government data itself shows how crores of public funds was wasted in the implementation of PM Kisan," deputy leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi said in a post on X.

Sharing a news link of PTI on the Aadhaar-NRC decision by Assam Cabinet, he said people in the state are paying GST, cess and various other duties. "...but the entire money is being funnelled into the pockets of BJP party members," Gogoi alleged.

TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, who hails from Assam, said the NRC has not been notified by the Registrar General of India to date and questioned making it the basis for Aadhaar.

"Secondly, even non-citizens in India get AADHAR cards if they have stayed 182 days in the 12 months before applying. Lastly, unless the government declares a person an illegal migrant, how can they refuse AADHAR? Assam is a banana republic under @himantabiswa & @BJP4India," she posted.

Though it is not officially stated that NRC is linked with Aadhaar card, the Assam government’s move will practically set NRC application as a pre-condition for new applicants to get the unique identity cards.

According to the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) approved by the Cabinet, the state government will verify the submitted documents and return them to UIDAI online within 45 days of receipt.

The final NRC was released on August 31, 2019 by excluding 19,06,657 people. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.

However, it has not been notified by the Registrar General of India yet, leaving the historic and controversial document without any official validity.