By Muslim Mirror Special Correspondent,
New Delhi: Muslim groups continued to lambaste the BJP government at the Center and Assam on the draft of NRC in the state which left out four million from the list. They described the move as the BJP’s political strategy to polarize the votes on communal lines.
Indian Union Muslim League said that “with the utter failure on all fronts, BJP government is bringing out a new weapon to divide the community and rule the country”. In a statement, IUML National General Secretary and MP, P.K. Kunhalikutty said all these years they (communal forces) were mum on the issue of NRC list in Assam and all of a sudden when the general elections are going to take place within a short span of time, they have brought out an issue to cover up the failures of this government.
Publication of NRC list is an exercise in haste and the BJP has thrown a subject for divisive politics. The public is now well informed of the nefarious designs of the BJP government at this juncture. It is only their divide and rule policy, he added.
The Welfare Party of India also strongly criticized the Assam’s final draft list of National Register of Citizens (NRC) which stripped 40 lakh people of their citizenship, declaring them as ‘illegal migrants’ and termed it as a political conspiracy.
While condemning the draft, Party President, Dr SQR Ilyas alleged that it is “BJP party’s strategy to divide people for electoral gains.”
Four million missing name in the draft list could be the largest population denied citizenship, resulting in one of the greatest human rights violation, worse than that which took place with Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar recently, he underlined.
This list though claiming to be a process to identify illegal Bangladeshi migrants is in fact a witch hunt against Assam’s ethnic minorities, he said and strongly criticized it and called it a classic example of BJP’s policy of polarisation, to divide society and promote hate.
The bigotry practiced by BJP government to defranchise people despite them providing relevant documents and creating confusion and uncertainty about their future, with members of the same families also finding their names missing in the draft, he said.
After the government spent Rs 1,200 crore rupees on this sensitive matter the draft report is dubious and the process tardy and the onus is on the people whose names are missing to prove linkage with person whose name appears in the legacy data.
Welfare Party demanded that the government not to deny any citizens of their citizenship and not to render them stateless and deport them or put them in concentration camps.
Meanwhile, the largest socio-religious organistion, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) also expressed grave concern over the NRC draft.
In a statement, JIH President Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari pointed out that the NRC has held about 40 lakh people (more than 10% of the state population) of the 3.3 crore applications to be invalid and hence disqualified to be bonafide citizens of India.
According to the Assam Accord signed in 1985, anyone who entered the state after 25 March 1971 is considered an illegal resident. For acceptance into the NRC the onus of proof (to prove citizenship) was the responsibility of the applicant. But genuine citizens, who are impoverished and could not maintain proper records because of their homes being exposed to the vagaries of nature, are impacted and now face the brunt of being branded as foreigners. Most of those who could not make it into the NRC were due to minor inaccuracies in their documents.
The government must look into complaints regarding NRC officials who exhibited bias and discrimination against a particular linguistic community and did not accept their application despite possessing all legal papers,” Jamaat chief said.
“It is the job of the government to ensure that those left out in the NRC be given ample time and opportunity to carry out the necessary formalities for providing the necessary documents and correct the many anomalies and discrepancies found in the draft NRC wherein the names of children are present but not their parents and vice versa, he said.
Jamaat chief also caution the government to keep a strict eye on the law and order situation and prevent miscreants and anti-social elements to use the NRC issue as an excuse to engineer riots and large scale violence against the minority community by branding them as foreigners, infiltrators and terrorists.
“The role of a section of media has also been very painful as it launched a virtual hate campaign against these 4 million hapless people which is aiding the hate agenda of the communal and fascist forces in our country,” he added.