NRC is a legal process, don’t misinterpret it, says experts

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a legal process that should not be misunderstood, said experts during an interactive session organised on NRC. The interactive session was held at Assam Bhawan in Navi Mumbai on Sunday that saw many natives from Assam participate.

"The influx of migrants is not new in Assam. It started during the British period which continues till date," said Samudra Gupta Kashyap, a senior journalist and a native of Assam.

The NRC, which was published on July 31, has seen varied responses from political parties. While a section started criticising the BJP government for excluding around 40 lakh people, there are sections supporting the NRC. "They have reasons to support it," said Kashyap.

Kashyap drew attention on why the need for NRC was felt and how Bangladeshi migrants changed the demography of nine districts in Assam. At present, 34.22 per cent population of the population in Assam is Muslim. "People live in fear of being swamped due to the continuous influx of migrants," said Kashyap.

"NRC is a transparent process but unfortunately many political parties are trying to give a political and religious colour to it. People should take the NRC as a positive step towards making the state free from illegal migrants," said Binod Mudiar, president, The Assam Association, Mumbai.

Kashyap said that from time to time, the Guwahati High Court as well as the Supreme Court warned of the consequences of the continuous influx of migrants. Once, the SC even observed that the influx posed a threat to the integrity and security of the North East states. The presence of migrants changed the demography of many districts severely. "The adjoining states known as seven sisters states including Assam have a security threat," said Kashyap.

"We expect that truth will prevail and genuine people will appear on the list. This is not the case of Assam alone but NRC should be implemented in other states of India too," said, Shiv Soni, a native of Assam, who now resides in Navi Mumbai.

"The whole process is being monitored by the Supreme Court and the final decision on sending them back to Bangladesh will be taken by the court," said Kashyap. However, another panelist in the interactive session said that sending illegal migrants to Bangladesh will be difficult as there is no such bilateral treaty between the two countries. "Bangladesh has already cleared that this is India's internal matter and there are no Bangladeshi migrants in India," he said. During the discussion, the role of Pakistan behind the huge influx of migrants was also discussed. Kashyap said that Pakistan's involvement cannot be denied.