Assam’s NRC process is vitiated by state apathy and prejudice, claims report

As the date for the finalisation of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) draws near, there are widespread reports of how the entire process of declaring millions of people as citizens and myriad others as “foreigners” (essentially stateless ) is terribly flawed and promoting xenophobia and communal hate. In such an atmosphere, there comes a fact-finding report by a collective of journalists and civil society activists which shows that while the NRC has been hailed and welcomed by all cross-sections of Assam’s population, the way the government is going about the exercise, has resulted in gross illegalities, violations of fundamental rights, and unmitigated suffering for many. Worse, as the D-Day draws near, they seem to have little or no scope for redress.

The report, by the collective United Against Hate, was prepared when the 12 member fact-finding team visited five districts of lower Assam- Barpeta, Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Guwahati- from June 26 to June 30 this year.

Senior journalist Amit Sengupta, a member of the team, said that the report has tried to be as impartial as possible, has tried to dispel as many dangerous myths doing the rounds, and is not a solution, but only a gateway to the looming crisis.

D- Voters Plight

The Foreigners Tribunals are tasked with identifying those who are citizens and those who are not, based on a long list of 16 documents which every individual has to provide. As per a Supreme Court ruling in 2015, the number of Foreigners’ Tribunals in the state was increased from 36 to 100. They take up cases of suspected foreigners, termed in the state as D or doubtful voters. In mid-2017, the Centre granted an extension to the tribunals.

The report said, “Already, according to official estimates, 1.25 lakh voters have been presumed ‘doubtful voters’. Thousands are under the scanner of Foreigners Tribunals and the Assam Border Police.” If they are dissatisfied with the finding of the tribunal, they have to appeal to the Guwahati High Court, and if their appeals are rejected, they are branded as “foreigners” and packed off to detention centres, which are essentially jails, where they are lodged as undertrials, and made to live in pitiable conditions. They are deprived of all the rights guaranteed to prisoners under Indian law.

There are six detention camps, which are not separate camps, but part of the district jail. In the Goalpara district jail, 239 “foreign nationals” are lodged, of which 195 are D-voters.

Fuzail Ayubi, a Supreme Court lawyer who advised the fact-finding team, echoed others of his fraternity in saying that when a person’s citizenship is still doubtful (and pending verification), branding her as a foreigner is patently illegal.

Biased Verification Process, Police Coercion

Prateek Hajela, the IAS officer appointed to coordinate the entire NRC process in the state, has vowed that all precautions would be taken during the exercise so that no one is left deprived of due process. But the report has documented scores of people who have not been informed that they have been served with notices, and when they failed to appear before the Tribunals, they were declared foreigners ex-parte. Only when the Assam Border Police comes to arrest them, do they know what has happened.

Many complained that the document verification centres did not consider differences and anomalies in dates of birth, or names of villages, or the fact that thousands lose their identification documents because of the floods that ravage Assam annually, or because of forced migration. There were also widespread allegations of officials being hand-in-glove with some polarising politicians to fudge data in the Legacy Data Code (the 1951 National Register of Citizens and all the electoral rolls up to 24 March, 1971- the cut-off date for being declared as Indian citizens).

This issue- that after the BJP came to power in the state in 2016 and promised a determined drive to throw out “Bangladeshis”, the NRC preparation process has become vitiated by police and some ruling party politicians’bias against the Bengali-speaking population (both Muslim and Hindu)- was brought up many times by the people the team spoke to, and was also mentioned by more than one speaker at the press conference in which the report was released. Both Amit Sengupta and journalist Manisha Bhalla spoke about how even Bengali-speaking Hindus, for example, the Rajbonshis (an ethnic group of Assam living in areas bordering Bangladesh) were being branded as foreigners, and this has led to a deep divide between the indigenous Assamese-speaking population and others.

The report documents the narratives of many people, predominantly Muslim, who the police forced to sign on fudged documents to show that they came to India from Bangladesh after the cut-off date, even though they had original documents proving that they were born in India. Official apathy has resulted in many families being separated- the mother being declared a foreigner while the father and offsprings are regarded as citizens.

Vitiated Atmosphere

Former Superintendent of Police S.R. Darapuri was critical of the BJP government at both the Centre and the State of acting in an imperious manner by deploying the security forces in many areas. Activists have argued that the forces are carrying out flag marches and mock drills and thus instilled an atmosphere of fear.

The report quotes former CM Tarun Gogoi as saying that this kind of deployment is unprecedented in the history of democratic Assam, and criticised Narendra Modi for his dog-whistle remark about deporting “Bangladeshis”. Stating that there have been many cases where the State’s actions has caused harassment, fear and trauma among innocent and bona fide Indians, he warned that the people would fight back if pushed to the wall.