File Picture Courtesy : Deccan Chronicle
Will NRC update on December 31, 2017 see the resolution of the vexed ” foreign nationals issue” of Assam ? This is the question that might be uppermost now in the minds of the ethnic Bengali – Hindus and Muslims and the ” indegenous” people of Assam . A straightforward and frank answer would be in the negative because of the complex nature of the problem and also the “ad-hoc ” and hesitant approach of the Centre and the state to deal with the problem right from 1979- 80 when the Assam movement against Foreign nationals was launched . Indeed the Government at the centre and the state were caught unaware when the movement literally erupted throwing Assam in total disarray till the Assam Accord of 1985 was signed between the Rajiv Gandhi led Central Government and the leaders of the ” Assam’ movement” in Delhi .
The rest is history of a sort that recorded no real success in meeting the core demands of the movement – detection of foreigners ( read Bangladeshi infiltrators), deletion of their names from the electoral roll and deportation to Bangladesh. The legal and administrative mechanism that were put in place namely, The IMDT Act 1983 ( The Illegal migrants Determination by Tribunals Act )later declared ultravires of the Constitution by the Supreme Court and even when the process of detection etc was taken up under the Foreigners Act 1946 the joint efforts of the Police and the Tribunals didn’t yield results despite clear political will to remove the foreign nationals from 2014. The Assam Tribune , Guwahati reported some time back that only a handful of the detected were deported and at about 40000 of the detected and declared as Bangladeshi illegal migrants were found missing.
In this background the NRC update exercise now being carried out is based on examination of documents claiming residential status and hence citizenship with the first NRC 1951 and the Electoral rolls prepared for the elections held till 1971 as points of reference. We must note that NRC was prepared only for Assam and not attempted elsewhere to address a serious and unforeseen situation arising out of implementation of the Indo Pak Pact on minorities in 1950 – better known as the Nehru Liaquat Pact which provided for the return of the minorities displaced in the wake of ” Pre and Post Partition violence” to their original places in India and Pakistan.
The reality of the situation was that while no Hindu refugees who came to India went back to the east Pakistan While the Muslims who went to Pakistan from Assam in the wake of disturbances in India not only returned but many Muslims came who were not residing in Assam before the partition. This was the reason for preparation of the first NRC though soon after large scale influx of Pak nationals began which compelled the Central Government to formulate and implement the PIP – The prevention of infiltration from Pakistan scheme which continued till 1968-69. The emergence of Bangladesh brought about a material change in the situation though from about 1976- 77 fresh influx from Bangladesh was reported which led to the ” Assam movement against Foreign nationals”.
In a way the movement never ended and only if the NRC update exercise could throw up a significant number of ” Bangladeshi infiltrators ” and the government succeed in deporting them to Bangladesh a vast section of the ” original residents” would feel secure and satisfied. The task is monumental as it involves scrutiny of 35 million persons including children of which about 15 million cases were pending for further scrutiny even in November last. This prompted the Centre to move Supreme Court which has been monitoring the progress of the NRC update – though it is an ” executive matter” for extension of time till July 2018. Predictably the Apex court rejected it and directed the government to complete the NRC update by December 31,the date it had fixed earlier.
The government therefore have no options but to produce a ” Draft NRC” but when one considers the sheer volume of the task of verification of the claims of a huge segment of the population it’s sensible to assume that the Draft presented on the 31st of December would require further clarification; and so the exercise will continue for some time more. It is not at all an easy task as it made put to be. But is in-fact an uphill task to be quite honest . Unfortunately, the issue has been so emotive and deeply politicised over four decades that there is little room for an objective analysis as for instance the lack of any customary international law of citizenship even though the right to a nationally is recognized as a human right under the UN charter.
It is this gap that Myanmar’s military junta exploited to disenfranchise the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine and turn them into ” stateless” in Myanmar in 1982. And any large scale deportation would require cooperation of the receiving country which in this case is unlikely given the pronounced stand of Bangladesh in this matter. Our own experience of Pre and Post Partition violence and the ongoing Rohingya, Syrian, Middle East Refugee problems established the brutal fact that only a sort of civil war could displace rural population on a significant scale and Assam’s Foreigners are largely settled in rural areas. Considering the wider implications of the issues involved in Assam , the release of the Draft NRC update is certain attract International interest and it makes sense to keep one’s fingures crossed.
( The writer is a retired IAS officer of the Assam – Meghalaya cadre and has served as Scientific Consultant in the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India)
