Accusing both the BJP and the Congress of trying to politicise the process of updating the National Register of Citizens, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, MP from Assam, said his party, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), supported the process since the entire process was being done under the watch of the Supreme Court.
“It is true that though the process of updating the NRC is going on under the supervision of the Honourable Supreme Court and the Registrar-General of India, the actual field work is being done by Assam government officials. And the BJP government may use a section of their employees to manipulate the process. But we shouldn’t oppose at this stage as any discrepancy can be corrected through the claims and objection process,” said Mr. Ajmal who heads the AIUDF.
In the 126-member Assam Assembly, the party has 13 MLAs and is popular among the Bengali-speaking minorities. Many of them are settlers who had migrated from the erstwhile East Bengal pre-Independence but often get branded as suspected foreigners.
“Once it becomes clear who is a citizen and who is a foreigner, it will put an end to the politics of vote bank and the harassment that some sections of our population face,” said Mr. Ajmal.
Missing name
Interestingly, the MP’s name was missing from the first draft of the NRC that came out on the midnight of December 3.
The National Register of Citizenship — first published after the 1951 Census in post-partition India when parts of Assam went to erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) — is being updated to determine foreigners who entered Assam after the midnight of March 24, 1971 as set out in the Assam Accord.
