Staff Reporter
Guwahati: Claiming the exclusion of around one lakh Gorkhas from the NRC, the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha (BGP)’s national president Sukhman Moktan said that trial of Indian Gorkhas in FTs (foreigners tribunals) is an insult.
Addressing a press conference at Dispur Press Club on Sunday, Moktan said, “During the BGP delegation’s week-long tour across Assam, we’ve witnessed that more than one lakh Gorkha people’s names have been excluded from the final citizenship list. In most of the cases it is found that documents that are declared valid by some NRC service centres are declared invalid by some other service centres. We can file defamation suits against the system for challenging Gorkhas’ citizenship and Nepali speaking population for being taken to FTs. The Gorkhas of Assam won’t go to the FTs to prove their citizenship.”
Suggesting the State government to form an empowered committee to dispose of NRC excluded cases Nanda Kirati Dewan, the president of Youth Wing Affairs, said that as a result of mistakes made by the government the names of Gorkha people were excluded from the list. Alleging it as bested interests within the system to disrespect Indian Gorkhas, BGP’s legal advisor and president of Assam State BGP Nityananda Upadhyay claimed, “ The Indian Gorkhas, who are original inhabitants, are directed to go to FTs as per NRC guidelines. This goes counter to the recent MHA notification that exempts the Gorkhas.”
Upadhyay further said, “The BGP is one of the parties to the NRC case in the Supreme Court of India. If the Government of Assam doesn’t do its duty as directed by the Union of India, the BGP will take a policy decision and move to the SC to ensure that the Gorkhas don’t have to go to FTs.”
The BGP Assam further claimed that the failure of the Assam government to file a fresh writ petition as directed by the Gauhati High Court to legally implement the MHA notification has jeopardized the cases of thousands of Gorkhas who seek redressal in getting their names removed from the list of D-Voters and from the FTs.