Ex-Assam CM writes to CJI on NRC

Former Assam chief minister and senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi has written to CJI Ranjan Gogoi, alleging that National Register of Citizens state coordinator Prateek Hajela did not discharge his duty efficiently while preparing the final list published last week, and requested him to review the matter.

NRC in Assam was updated under the monitoring of the Supreme Court and the final list, which validates bonafide Indian citizens of the state, excluded over 1.9 million applicants. The final NRC list was published on August 31.

In the letter to the Cheif Justice of India, Gogoi alleged that Hajela did not follow the direction of the apex court although over 50,000 government officials were engaged in the NRC updation job and around ₹1,200 crore was spent at the cost of development work of the state.

“Now the question arises about the fates of several lakh people who have been left out of the NRC and have to move to Foreigners Tribunals to prove their citizenship and face harassment, not due to their faults but due to the callousness and inefficiency of the NRC authority,” he said.

The three-time Congress chief minister said a number of people were excluded though their names were there in the voters’ lists of both 1966 and 2019. March 24, 1971, is the cut-off date for making a legitimate claim to Indian citizenship.

The final NRC has been rejected by all political parties, social organisations and intellectuals of the state, Tarun Gogoi said.

“The state government also, if I am not wrong, is trying to blame the Supreme Court as they have been making allegations that they had their limitation due to interference of the Supreme Court while the Supreme Court was not the implementing authority but the fact is that the Government of India was the implementing authority. In my view, it is nothing but a total failure of the Government of India,” he said.

Chandra Mohan Patowary, senior cabinet minister and spokesperson of the Assam government, too, could not be reached for a comment despite several attempts.

In West Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that the Trinamool Congress government will not allow implementation of NRC in the state.

The implementation of the NRC is nothing but a political vendetta of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government, she told the assembly.

“This (NRC implementation) is nothing but an attempt to divert the attention of the people from the ongoing economic crisis in the country,” she said.