‘1951’ Sword over Migrants
Demand to drop 1971 cut-off for identifying foreigners by 20 years
On June 15, Abu Taher Ahmed, an Assam police constable with nine years of service, received a notice from one of the foreigners tribunals in the state, asking him to show documents proving Indian citizenship. In a state where the Election Commission has barred thousands of people from voting due to doubts over their nationality, the missive to Ahmed did not surprise many.
For in March, the border wing of the state police had referred 11 relatives of Moulavi Muhammad Amiruddin, the Assam legislative assembly’s first deputy speaker from 1936 to 1946, to the tribunal to submit proof of their antecedents. More recently, on June 19, the Sarbananda Sonowal-led BJP government summarily terminated the services of 19 presiding officers of tribunals. They were apparently fired for failing to detect foreigners in ‘adequate’ numbers. The state government was reportedly also unhappy with tribunals acting against the submissions of the state police. It has challenged over 20 tribunal verdicts in the high court.
But social activists allege that
IT IS ALLEGED THAT THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF CITIZENS HAS BEEN FILLED WITH HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL BANGLADESHIS
hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi immigrants have been illegally included in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) being prepared for the state under the Supreme Court’s supervision. NGO Assam Public Works (APW) had petitioned the court in 2009 to update the NRC in order to identify foreigners in Assam. APW president Abhijit Sharma says before the court stepped in, “the state government was updating the NRC on the basis of documents such as ration cards”.
In March, the Gauhati High Court rejected residency certificates issued by gram panchayats as proof of citizenship. A month later, the Supreme Court disallowed ration cards as proof of nationality. On July 13, Sonowal earned a rap from a Supreme Court bench for announcing that the updated NRC would be ready by December 31, 15 months before deadline. “We don’t appreciate any other authority intervening in the matter of preparation and publication of the draft NRC when this court has been monitoring the process,” the bench observed.
By July-end, the Supreme Court is expected to begin daily hearings on another APW appeal seeking change of the base year for detection of foreigners from 1971 to 1951. Notably, the 1985 Assam Accord between the Indian government, All Assam Students Union and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad had agreed that all pre-1971 immigrants would be considered citizens of the country.
While the chief minister has publicly accepted 1971 as the cut-off year, finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has been openly advocating 1951—a call that resonates with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as well. If the Supreme Court accedes to the APW’s demand, millions of people could find themselves stripped of their Indian citizenship.