NRC to counter the campaign against them in Assam

As the campaign against updating National Register of Citizens 1951 gathers nationwide attention, the NRC office has launched a social media campaign to counter it, an official said on Thursday.

The social media team of the NRC office here on Monday noticed the petition titled "India: Stop Deleting Muslims" on a web campaigning community portal, 'Avaaz', NRC state co-ordinator Prateek Hajela said.

The portal termed the ongoing process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) "a ploy" to delete Muslim applicants' names, he said.

Over 2.5 lakh applicants from across the world have already signed the petition with the number increasing rapidly, Hajela said, adding that it has gone viral on social media.

To counter the Avaaz petition, the NRC office has launched an online petition and its social media team is replying to posts, clarifying that the NRC was not targeted against any religion or community, but was being updated to detect foreigners staying illegally in the state, he said.

The Awaaz petition alleged that publication of the NRC "will lead to mass violence, ethnic cleansing and the transfer of minority Muslims to prison camps for life".

The counter petition of the NRC office said, "The NRC update is being carried out in Assam under the provisions of Indian laws and that too under close supervision of the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court."

"Those persons whose names do not appear on the list will be given an opportunity to apply again through disposal of claims and objections. Even after publication of the final list, any applicant will have legal right for judicial intervention through approaching Foreigner Tribunals before being declared a foreigner," it said.

The NRC is being updated to identify alleged illegal immigrants in the state.

It is being updated in Assam with March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date as per the Assam Accord, 1985.

Assam, which had faced influx of people from neighbouring erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) since the early 20th century, is the only state that has an NRC, which was first prepared in 1951.

The first draft of the updated NRC published on midnight of December 31 last year had 1.9 crore names out of the 3.29 crore who had applied for inclusion of their names in the NRC and the final draft is scheduled to be released on July 30.