It looks as if the saga of the National Register of Citizens, or NRC as it is called, will not be ending anytime soon for the people of Assam.
Despite a final NRC created under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court of India, BJP governments at the Centre and State continue to stonewall its implementation.
At stake is the citizenship status of a little over 19 lakh persons whose names did not figure in the final NRC published under Supreme Court orders in August 2019. Nearly three years have passed, but the persons left out – both Muslims and Hindus – haven’t had the opportunity to address their citizenship status.
For long, the immigrant issue has been used to play political football with the lives of the people of Assam. It appears that the ruling BJP doesn’t want to implement the final NRC as the numbers don’t suit its political orientation.
Of late, Assam’s NRC coordinator, Hitesh Dev Sarma, has written to judges in the Foreigners Tribunals, saying that the NRC as published, under the express orders of the Supreme Court, not be treated as final. At least one of the judges has responded to Mr. Sarma by asking him not to interfere in the functioning of the Tribunals, which was beyond his jurisdiction.
So, where does the NRC and those affected by it, go from here? To discuss these issues, I am joined from Assam by Sanjoy Barbora, who teaches at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Guwahati.
Guest: Dr. Sanjoy Barbora is Professor at the Guwahati campus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu
Edited by Reenu Cyriac