India has published the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), a list of genuine citizens in the state of Assam, excluding 1.9 million people amid fears they could be rendered stateless.
Last July more than four million people in the north-eastern state were excluded from the final draft list of citizens published by the Registrar General of India.
According to rights groups, the exercise also made people in Assam — mostly Hindus and Muslims of Bengal origin under suspicion of being illegal immigrants — spend more than ₹7,800 crore on hearings, besides claiming the lives of around 60 people, reports Indian media outlet the Hindu.
Four of them were killed in police firing during a pilot project in western Assam’s Barpeta on Jul 2010, a few died in accidents during trips to the NRC service centres for hearings, while the rest allegedly died of shock and anxiety because of the fear of becoming stateless, the report adds.
India's home ministry has said people whose names don't appear in the final NRC cannot be declared foreigners till all legal options are exhausted. Every person left out of the NRC can appeal to the Foreigners Tribunal, and the time limit to file the appeal has been extended from 60 to 120 days.
The Home Ministry said at least 1,000 tribunals will be set up in phases to hear disputes; 100 tribunals are already open and 200 more will be set up in the first week of September.
If one loses the case in the tribunal, one can approach the high court and then the Supreme Court. No one will be put in detention centres until all legal options are exhausted, the government has said.
Prior to the publication of the final NRC, there was speculation that the number of excluded would vary from a minimum of 1-1.2 million to a maximum of 2.0-2.2 million — roughly half of the 4.1 million put on two exclusion lists on Jul 30, 2018, and Jun 26 this year.
The estimation was based on certain judgments by the Supreme Court, such as disallowing people who allegedly traded or exchanged legacy data and excluding the declared foreigners, doubtful (D) voters and people with pending cases in Foreigners Tribunals, along with members of their families.
A set of documents such as the 1951 NRC and voters’ list up to March 25, 1971, are together called legacy data. Legacy code was provided to each person figuring in these documents.
Critics accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party of stoking the sentiment against illegal immigrants and misusing the register to target even legal Muslim citizens. His close aide, Home Minister Amit Shah, has previously vowed to weed out illegal immigrants, calling them “termites”.
Officials in Assam say they do not know what will eventually be done with those finally adjudged foreigners. Bangladesh has not committed to accepting them. More than 1,000 people are being held in Assam’s six detention centres for illegal immigrants and the state government has said it seeks to set up more centres. Human rights activists have criticized conditions at the centres, and lawyers and activists have outlined problems with the functioning of the foreigners’ tribunals.
