<p class="title rtejustify">An Indian-American advocacy group today called for immediate suspension of the National Registry of Citizens until the irregularities resulting in four million people being excluded from the list are fixed.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">The names of 40.07 lakh applicants in Assam did not find a place in the much-anticipated second and final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a historic document touted to be a proof of Assamese identity.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">"The ethnic group that is the worst victim of this mass disenfranchisement is the Bengali-speaking Muslim community in Assam, accused of being 'infiltrators,' although they are Indian citizens," the Indian-American Muslim Council (IAMC) said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">"The fact that this is an exercise in the subversion of democracy and has a clearly bigoted, discriminatory agenda, is reflected in the exclusion of the relatives of the former President of India," said IAMC president Ahsan Khan said.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">"The entire programme should be suspended until the criteria for exclusion are clearly defined," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">It called on the Indian government not to allow religious differences to define the socio-political landscape of the country, where something as basic as a citizen's right to be called a citizen of the country is arbitrarily snatched away.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">The first draft of the NRC was published during the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 this year, containing 1.9 crore names.</p>
<p class="title rtejustify">An Indian-American advocacy group today called for immediate suspension of the National Registry of Citizens until the irregularities resulting in four million people being excluded from the list are fixed.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">The names of 40.07 lakh applicants in Assam did not find a place in the much-anticipated second and final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a historic document touted to be a proof of Assamese identity.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">"The ethnic group that is the worst victim of this mass disenfranchisement is the Bengali-speaking Muslim community in Assam, accused of being 'infiltrators,' although they are Indian citizens," the Indian-American Muslim Council (IAMC) said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">"The fact that this is an exercise in the subversion of democracy and has a clearly bigoted, discriminatory agenda, is reflected in the exclusion of the relatives of the former President of India," said IAMC president Ahsan Khan said.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">"The entire programme should be suspended until the criteria for exclusion are clearly defined," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">It called on the Indian government not to allow religious differences to define the socio-political landscape of the country, where something as basic as a citizen's right to be called a citizen of the country is arbitrarily snatched away.</p>.<p class="bodytext rtejustify">The first draft of the NRC was published during the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 this year, containing 1.9 crore names.</p>