Most left out of NRC are Indian citizens: Tarun Gogoi

Slamming the BJP-led government's "failure" to give Assam a correct National Register of Citizens (NRC), former Assam Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Tarun Gogoi on Monday said most among those left out of the exercise are Indian citizens.

"Most among the 19 lakh persons, who have been left out of the NRC are genuine Indian citizens. There are Hindu Bengalis, Muslims, Gorkhas and ethnic communities too among them. It was because of BJP government's failure in the past three years, we did not get an error free NRC. Now they (BJP govt) are pushing such a large number of people to courts. Why can't the Register General of India or home ministry set up a review committee to check how genuine citizens have been left out? NRC is being updated as per an executive order. Why are they pushing such a large number of people to courts? Courts take time to dispose off cases," Gogoi told reporters here.

Over 19.06 lakh of 3.30 crore applicants have been left out of the NRC pushing them to approach Foreigner Tribunals to prove their Indian citizenship. The BJP government in the state and at the Centre clarified that those left out of the NRC would not be treated as foreigners till they are declared so by foreigner tribunals. But the opposition Congress and local organisations have blamed that many foreigners managed to make it to the NRC while genuine citizens left out due to the government's failure.

"It was the government's responsibility to give a correct NRC. Sarbananda Sonowal became chief minister with the promise to make Assam a foreigner free state but he has failed to give an error free NRC to detect the foreigners. How many foreigners have been detected since 2016 when Sonowal became the Chief Minister? How many cases related to suspected foreigners have been referred to tribunals in the past three years? Let Sonowal issue a white paper," he said.

The BJP-led the state government is planning to move the Supreme Court seeking review of the NRC while it wants to offer citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who had migrated due to religious persecution, by amending the Citizenship Act 1950. Congress, however, slammed it saying it was part of BJP's agenda of making India a Hindu Rashtra or Hindu nation.