The exclusion of over 19 lakh people from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) represents a humanitarian problem of enormous proportions for the country (Front page, “Over 19 lakh excluded from final NRC,” Sept. 1). The NRC is a failure of imagination. The very idea of excluding and deporting those considered “foreigners’ repudiates the notion of common humanity outlined in the vasudaiva kutumbakam principle and glosses over the simple fact that the history of mankind is the history of migrations. It is significant that most of the excluded people are poor, landless and illiterate people without documents to establish their residency or legacy. The NRC has also demolished the myth of ‘massive influx’ of illegal migrants into Assam. Provided there is human kindness, the excluded persons too can be accommodated in the list and saved from facing an uncertain future and undergoing immense human suffering.
G. David Milton,
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu
