GUWAHATI: Almosttwo million people in northeast India were left facing statelessness yesterdayafter they were excluded from a citizenship list aimed at weeding out"foreign infiltrators", in a process the central government wants toreplicate nationwide.
A total of 31.1million people were included in a National Register of Citizens (NRC), but 1.9million were deemed ineligible, according to an official statement. A largechunk of those excluded were expected to be Muslims. Shahibul Haque Shikdar, aMuslim college teacher, was distraught after two of his children made it to thelist but he was left out.
"Even myfather's name is there in the final NRC but I have been left out," the39-year-old told AFP. Assam has long seen large influxes from elsewhere,including under British colonial rule and around Bangladesh's 1971 war ofindependence when millions fled into India.
For decades thishas made Assam a hotbed of inter-religious and ethnic tensions. Sporadicviolence has included the 1983 massacre of around 2,000 people. Security wasbeefed up in Assam ahead of the release of the NRC, with some 20,000 extrapersonnel brought in and gatherings banned in some locations. There were nodisturbances reported yesterday however.
'Termites'
Anxious residentshad started queueing up since early morning, braving rain and bad weather tocheck their names on the list. Only those who can demonstrate they or theirforebears were in India before 1971 could be included in the list. Butnavigating the complex process is a huge challenge for many in a flood-pronepoor region of high illiteracy where many lack documentation. Indian PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party runs Assam,and critics say the NRC process reflects the BJP's goal to serve only itsco-religionists.
In JanuaryIndia's lower house passed legislation that would grant citizenship to peoplewho moved to India as recently as six years ago-as long as they are notMuslims. This has stoked fears among India's 170-million Muslim minority fortheir future.
Home MinisterAmit Shah, Modi's right-hand-man, has called for the ejection of"termites" and said before the BJP's thumping re-election victory inMay that it would "run a countrywide campaign to send back theinfiltrators". Those left off the NRC have 120 days to appeal at specialForeigners Tribunals, which the government says are being expanded in number.
But activists saythat tribunal members are often underqualified and are subject to"performance" targets, and that the process has been riddled withinconsistencies and errors. Instances of people being declared foreignersbecause of clerical errors, such as differences in the spelling of names, are"appallingly common", Amnesty International said yesterday.
Local lawmakerAnanta Kumar Malo, whose name was missing from the list, said he was appalledby the process. "There are some problems with the system, otherwise howcan they exclude my name?" he said. The number of mistakes and the factthat those left off the NRC were expected to include large numbers ofBengali-speaking Hindus has also turned some in the BJP against the process.With many "genuine Indians" left off, the party is mulling a"fresh strategy on how we can drive out the illegal migrants", saidHimanta Biswa Sarma, a local BJP minister.
Camps andsuicides
Those rejected bythe tribunals who have exhausted all other legal avenues can be declaredforeigners and-in theory-be placed in one of six detention centers with a viewto possible deportation, although Bangladesh is yet to signal its cooperation.Ten new such camps have been announced. One with space for 3,000 is beingconstructed in Goalpara, west of Assam's biggest city Guwahati. The campscurrently hold 1,135 people, according to the state government, and have beenoperating for years. Nur Mohammad, 65, spent almost 10 years in one such campuntil a Supreme Court order saw him released this month.
"I was bornhere and lived in Assam all my life," he said this week. "I don'tknow if my name will be in the NRC or not." Media reports say there havebeen more than 40 suicides caused by concern over the NRC. SamujjalBhattacharya from the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), a key driver behind theNRC, said the register was necessary to protect Assam's indigenous "sonsof the soil". "We are not ready to live here like a second-classcitizens in our own motherland," he said.-AFP