ABVP stages protest in Assam; demands error-free NRC

With the date for publication of the highly- contentious National Register of Citizens inching closer, protests demanding re-verification and error-free NRC are on the rise. ABVP and several other organisations have been staging protests across Assam since the state government claimed that the percentage of people excluded from the draft National Register of Citizens was lower in districts bordering Bangladesh, that have a sizeable Muslim population, than those where Hindus were in majority.

Tezpur (Assam): With just 10 days left to the publication of final National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party, held a protest rally at Assam's Tezpur district on Tuesday demanding an error-free NRC as well as 100 percent re-verification of the names included in the highly-contentious NRC draft citizens register.

"ABVP's only demand is an error-free NRC. Our concern is that the mechanism adopted by them (government) is flawed, which has led to the inclusion of the names of a large number of illegal immigrants. This is against the country's greater interest, " said a protesting member of the ABVP.

He added, "We have requested the government to correct the mechanism and we also demand a 100 percent re-verification...which was also proposed in the Supreme Court...to ensure an error-free NRC in order to safeguard the identity of the 'khilonjiya' (indigenous) in Assam including that of the genuine citizens of the country."

The members and supporters of the right-wing student body were raising slogans including "Bangladeshi go back" and "We want clean NRC" while staging a protest on the streets of Tezpur.

A similar protest was observed by the ABVP in Guwahati on Monday, after which they submitted a memorandum to Prateek Hajela, state NRC coordinator, seeking an error-free NRC.

Earlier on Saturday, members of Hindu Jagaran Manch in Kokrajhar district of Assam had staged a two-hour dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office demanding a clean and error-free NRC.

A memorandum was also sent to the registrar general under the ministry of home affairs, through the Kokrajhar deputy commissioner, demanding 100 per cent re-verification of the draft list of the NRC update before publishing the final list.

A similar protest was also staged by members of Sachetan Nagarik Mancha.

The demands for re-verification by has seen a sudden rise after the Assam government claimed that the percentage of people excluded from the draft National Register of Citizens was lower in districts bordering Bangladesh, that have a sizeable Muslim population than those where Hindus were in majority.

Assam Accord Implementation and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary had placed in the state assembly a district-wise list of inclusions, rejections and non-inclusion of applicants’ names in the NRC.

The list showed the total number of applicants was 3,29,91,385 out of which 40,07,717 names (12.15 per cent) were not included. The percentage of excluded names in the districts bordering Bangladesh, such as South Salmara was 7.22, Dhubri 8.26 and Karimganj 7.67. Non-border districts Hojai and Darrang have the highest non-inclusion rate at 32.99 per cent and 30.90 per cent, respectively.

The final NRC is scheduled to be published on August 31.