There was an "urgent need" to identify illegal migrants, says CJI Gogoi regarding the NRC exercise in his home state of Assam.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi at a book launch event on Sunday said that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in his home state of Assam is not a document of the moment but is instead a "base document for the future", adding that there was an "urgent need" to identify illegal migrants in the state.
CJI Gogoi was speaking at the launch event of the book titled 'Post-Colonial Assam'. He said, "Nineteen lakh or 40 lakh is not the point. But it is a base document for the future. A document on which we can refer to determine future claims. The CJI also said that the intrinsic value of the NRC exercise, to his view, is actually mutual and peaceful co-existence. "Progressive societies are meant to be inclusive," Gogoi said.
He insisted that the NRC exercise was meant to ascertain with some degree of certainty the number of illegal migrants and "nothing more nothing less". "The national discourse on the NRC has seen the emergence of armchair commentators," said CJI Gogoi who insisted that the exercise will put things in perspective, "who present a distorted picture."
The chief of the Supreme Court of India, Gogoi, expressed dissatisfaction regarding how certain media outlets had painted the exercise. Their "irresponsible reporting", the CJI said, "only worsened the situation." Besides, he also appeared grim regarding the people who vilified the NRC exercise on social media. "The social media and its tools have been used by many commentators to doublespeak on the issue. They launched a motivated tirade at a democratic institution. These commentators and their vile on the initiative (NRC) was far removed from the facts," he said.
In the final NRC list published on August 31, a total of 3,11,21,004 persons were found eligible for inclusion in the list leaving out 19,06,657 persons, including those who did not submit their claims in Assam.
Ranjan Gogoi, who, as the Chief Justice of India, is the chief of the judiciary of the country and of the Supreme Court of India, is due to retire on November 17. He will be succeeded by Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde as the next CJI who will take oath on November 18.
(With Zee Media newsroom inputs)
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