STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Leader of opposition, Assam Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia, clarifying that the Congress has not rejected the NRC stated, “The publication of the final NRC has elicited various reactions from political parties and political leaders. One significant aspect is that on the eve of publication of the NRC, the Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, termed it as a historic document whereas his colleagues such as Himanta Biswa Sarma and Ranjit Kumar Dass have rejected it as a useless document.
As leader of the Congress Legislature Party, I wish to make it clear that although the Congress party has pointed out certain deficiencies in the final NRC, yet we believe that the NRC marks an important preliminary step towards ridding Assam of illegal migrants. The 19,06,659 people omitted from the NRC include numerous bona fide Indian citizens such as members of the tea community, Gorkhas and various tribes and ethnic groups of Assam. In many cases, some members of a specific family have been left out of the NRC despite using the same legacy data as relatives who have been included in the document. In fact, among others incumbent MLAs and relatives of well-known freedom fighters have been excluded from the NRC in a most surprising manner. Nevertheless, these anomalies can be rectified in the coming days provided the government, NRC authority and eventually the Foreigners Tribunals all work impartially with a common purpose.
The AICC met in New Delhi on the very day that the final NRC was published and resolved extend legal and other assistance to safeguard the rights of genuine Indian citizens who have been excluded from the document, the goal being inclusion of their names in the ensuing phase. The point to be noted is that the Congress party has pointed out anomalies in the document, but it has not summarily rejected the NRC.”
The Congress party had intervened more than once in the Supreme Court during the NRC update process when genuine Indian citizens faced harassment. Indeed, it was Congress-led governments at the Centre and the state which had initiated the NRC update process in 2005 after tripartite discussions involving the AASU. Although the Congress-led governments could not complete the NRC update process due to a variety of factors, there is no question of the Congress rejecting the NRC out of hand. On the contrary, the Congress is determined to utilize legitimate means on offer to ensure that genuine Indian citizens obtain justice and are included in the NRC. It is now the government’s duty to make sure that if the names of any illegal migrants have been included in the NRC, then those names are weeded out. At the same time, it is also the government’s duty to come up with a mechanism whereby genuine citizens omitted from the NRC can ensure inclusion of their names without having to approach the FTs or the higher judiciary,” said Saikia.