CM Sonowal urges people to wait till NRC update is complete

Faced with widespread protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday appealed to the people of the state to be patient till work on updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was complete.

Assam is witnessing largescale demonstrations against the Bill, which seeks to grant citizenship to religious minorities from neighbouring countries, over fears of an influx of Hindu Bangladeshis.

Nearly 50,000 government employees in the state are currently engaged in updating the NRC, which was first prepared in 1951, in a bid to weed out illegal immigrants who entered the state after March 24, 1971—the day the Bangladesh War started.

“We are waiting till June 30 for the NRC process to be over. The state government’s view on the issue will be known once the process is over. I can assure that we won’t take any decision which will go against the interest of the people of Assam,” Sonowal said.

His government has been facing flak from organisations across the state for keeping mum on the issue especially when neigbouring Meghalaya, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is part of the government, came out clearly against the Bill.

The BJP had come to power in 2016 with promise of protecting “jati, maati and bheti” (identity, land and homes).

Illegal immigration is a sensitive issue in Assam, where a mass agitation between 1979 and 1985 against foreigners had claimed over 800 lives.

“We are preparing to launch another agitation against the Bill since it is a question of our identity,” Lurinjyoti Gogoi, general secretary of the All Assam Student’s Union (AASU), which led the 1979-1985 agitation, said.

Sonowal is facing threat of pullout from coalition partner Asom Gana Parishad.

“Our stand is very clear. If the Bill is passed, we won’t stay in government,” AGP president Atul Bora said.

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