The release of first draft of National Register of Citizens brings a ray of hope for the people of Assam which they had cherished for decades
NJ Thakuria from Guwahati
It was like a most sought-after New Year gift for the locals of Assam. And it struck on the midnight of December 31, 2017. The release of first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) came a ray of hope for them which they had cherished for decades.
Contrary to the widespread apprehensions of unpleasant situation arising after the release of the NRC draft, no major unwanted incident was reported from any part of the state, where of course the authority along with various political parties, civil society and advocacy group representatives along with the media played a pragmatic role in maintaining peace across the region. The updatation of NRC, under the observation and guidelines of the Supreme Court, covered 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applicants in Assam. The process of updating began in 2013, which received 6.5 crore supporting documents comprising 68.27 lakh families residing in the State. It is a follow-up action of Assam Accord, signed by the leaders of All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Gana Sangram Parishad in
1985 with the Rajiv Gandhi Government in New Delhi.
The historic memorandum of understanding (MoU) puts responsibility on the Union Government to detect and deport all illegal East Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals who entered Assam after the midnight of March 24, 1971. It accepted all residents prior to the dateline as Indian nationals in Assam. Moreover, the Centre would
provide constitutional safeguards to the indigenous communities of the State.
The Bangladeshi infiltrators have remained a socio-political issue in north-east India for decades as Assam witnessed the historic Assam Movement in the eighties. The Assam Accord eventually empowered Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) with the same leadership of AASU to come to power in Dispur for two terms but the regional party leaders simply betrayed the people on this issue.
By now, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and main opposition party Congress have engaged in verbal confrontations claiming credit for the NRC updation process. The BJP, while criticising the Congress and other parties for not showing interest in it assured that its second and final draft would be published by this year end.
The year 2017 witnessed enormous discussions and apprehensions in Assam about the Centre’s initiative to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 with the provisions to grant citizenship to the persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh after due processes. The Citizenship Amendment Bills are expected to be passed soon in the Parliament. Assam witnessed huge protests against the initiative arguing that the amendment would jeopardize the Assam Accord as well as, harm the social fabrics of the Stare where various communities irrespective of their caste, creed and religions had been living in a
harmonious ambiance with endless inspirations from the preaching of 15th century saint-philosopher-social reformer Mohapurush Srimanta Sankardev.
However, expressing annoyance over a section of Assamese intellectuals and civil society group representatives for projecting the amendment bill in a biased perception, a forum of patriotic people based in Assam had emphasised on a healthy and meaningful debate over the
matter. The Front clarified that the asylum seekers were not merely Bengali Hindus, but a mix of Rajbongshi, Hajong, Jayantiya, Bishnupriya, Chakma, Garo, Khasi, etc. We should not forget that all these people became the victims of Pakistan’s Partition gameplan and had to live in a foreign land, for the creation of which they were not responsible at all. Had the Supreme Court not decided to issue firm directions to the Government about updating the NRC of 1951 and also decided to monitor the entire exercise, the NRC might never have got updated. According to reports, the names of several people, including leaders of political parties and students’ organisations, did not figure in the first list. But several leaders said they were not worried about not seeing their names in the first NRC draft and requested people whose names did not appear on the list not to worry because the document verification process was yet to be completed.
Given the large number of false or forged documents submitted by those who could not be included in the updated NRC, the preparation of family trees and depending heavily on information technology were helpful in the process. Otherwise, the bygone year was promising for the BJP as the party started expanding its support base across the region. In Assam, the BJP-led Sarbananda Sonowal government is committed to make Assam free from corruption, pollution and illegal foreigners. Sonowal not only empowered the CM vigilance cell but also put in action to arrest over hundred government officials who are still behind bars. The list includes the chairman of Assam Public Service Commission, director of State information and public relations, over 25 State civil service officers, etc.
After Assam, the BJP won Assembly elections in Manipur last year. Meitei civil society activist Irom Srarmila Chanu and Congress lost the game and Manipur witnessed a BJP Chief Minister, Nongthombam Biren Singh, for the first time.
This year Assembly elections are due in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. The BJP leadership is expected to leave no stone unturned to capture power not only in the Congress ruled Meghalaya and Mizoram, but also in the Communist ruled Tripura.
Tripura was in the media for wrong reasons as two Agartala based working journalists were killed in 2017. A young television scribe of Tripura (Shantanu Bhowmik) was killed by a mob on September 20. Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar’s embarrassment went on high as one more journalist (Sudip Datta Bhaumik) was killed on November 21 by none other than a State government force trooper. The media rights activists, while demanding justice for the victim families, reminded Sarkar that Tripura had earlier lost three media employees (Sujit Bhattacharya, Ranjit Chowdhury and Balaram Ghosh) to assailants in 2013, whereas no other north-eastern States reported any such casualty in this period.
On a positive note, as the
insurgency related activities came down drastically across the region, sporting events arrived in Guwahati with a bang. A number of regional, national and international events covering football, cricket, boxing, badminton etc matches were organised in the city with spectacular response from the sports lovers in particular and common people in general. n
