Congress slams careless implementation of NRC

The Congress on Saturday slammed the “careless implementation” of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, claiming that several genuine citizens were left out of the list.

Hours after the NRC Final list was released, top Congress leaders including party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, K C Venugopal, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Gaurav Gogoi went into a huddle to discuss the release's fallout.

After the meeting, Gogoi said that the Congress would provide all help to those who have been left out from the NRC in filing appeals with the foreigner's tribunals within the next 120 days.

“Careless implementation that many genuine Indian citizens will have to unnecessarily face the courts,” Gogoi said adding that every person in Assam was unhappy with the status of the NRC.

Gogoi pointed out that even BJP ministers were complaining about the implementation of the NRC, an apparent reference to Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's outburst terming the final list “faulty”.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, said that steps should be taken to ensure that no genuine citizen was ousted in any condition and demanded protection for such persons.

Former Silchar MP Sushmita Dev termed the exclusion of 19 lakh people from the NRC a human rights issue.

"Genuine citizens are out & even if they are not citizens, they are all human. The legal battle ahead is tough. India has to offer a solution for all of them, can’t have lakhs of stateless people,” Dev, the president of the All India Mahila Congress, said.

The final list of NRC in Assam was published on Saturday, excluding over 19 lakh people. The exercise, conducted as per the directions of the Supreme Court, was aimed at identifying legal residents and weed out illegal immigrants from the state.