Guwahati: Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on October 27 said that there will be no Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters in Assam for the 2026 assembly election. The special decision was taken keeping in view the ongoing NRC process in the state. CEC Gyanesh Kumar said in a press briefing in New Delhi, “As all of us know there is a separate provision of citizenship in Assam under the Citizenship Act. Secondly, under the supervision of the honourable Supreme Court the NRC update process is going on in the state. So, the June 24 notice for SIR of voters for the entire country isn’t applicable in Assam. For Assam there will be a separate notice of Special Intensive Revision.”
Reacting on the update CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the state government has already informed their view to the central government. The process of SIR will be done in the state as per the instruction of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
NRC in Assam
Update of National Register of Citizenship (NRC) was a long pending issue in Assam. The historic Assam Accord was signed in 1985 between the agitating All Assam Student Union (AASU) and central government. One of the major promises of the accord was to safeguard the socio-economic and political rights of the indigenous people of the state from the aggression of the Bangladeshi infiltrators who got the citizenship as per the accord. The accord was signed to accept the Bangladeshi infiltrators who entered Assam before midnight of March 24, 1971.
Even though the accord was not accepted by a large section of people, it has given citizenship to lakhs of infiltrators in the state. But still the illegal immigration didn’t come to an end in Assam. Another major promise of the accord was to detect, delete and deport the infiltrators illegally residing in Assam post 1971. So NRC update was mandatory in the state. The Congress government in the centre signed the accord with AASU to end the 6 years long historic Assam Agitation. But in the coming days the successive central government never fulfilled the promises made to the people of Assam through the Assam Accord. NRC was never updated in Assam for over 2 decades of signing the accord.
After massive demand and protest the central government initiated the NRC process after a tripartite meeting with AASU. The pilot project of the NRC started in 2010 in the minority dominated Kamrup and Barpeta district. But after violent attacks and protests by the minority student union the pilot project was canceled by the government.
The matter reached the supreme court thereafter. In 2013 the supreme court directed the government to start the NRC update process and a bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi and Justice R Fali Nariman decided to directly supervise the process. The final draft of the NRC was published after a long update process on 31st August 2019. Over 19 lakhs of people of the state were left out from the final draft NRC.
The Controversy
Assam Public Works (APW) a social organisation which is the original petitioner in the SC for NRC update, filed a prayer after publication of the final draft NRC and alleged that the process was forged by lakhs of applicants with fake documents. The state government has also filed an affidavit in the supreme court to verify 20 percent data of the draft NRC. The matter is under the jurisdiction of the supreme court now. Former coordinator of the NRC office IAS officer Hitesh Deb Sharma alleged huge anomalies and corruption in the process. Sharma claimed that lakhs of Bangladeshi origin Muslims have entered their names in the final draft NRC using forged documents.
A large section of people in Assam too have a similar view on the final draft NRC. So far it is not clear about the fate of the NRC in Assam. A writ petition has been filed in the supreme court seeking comprehensive and time bound re-verification of the draft and supplementary NRC. The petitioner pleaded for a correct and error free NRC keeping in view the national security. The petitioner submits that several ‘omissions and commissions’ took place during the update process of NRC and seeks court direction for corrective actions.
The NRC is a critical and important process for Assam. As a bordering state with Bangladesh and with the soft approach of previous Congress governments for vote bank politics, Assam has been facing a huge threat from illegal infiltrators for decades. A correct and error free NRC is a must to end the century long illegal immigrants problem in the state. The massive population growth of Bangladeshi origin Muslims in Assam is a result of continuous illegal infiltration. The Muslim population in the state is expected to reach 40 percent by the next census. So an error free NRC is an utmost important document for the safeguard of the indigenous people of Assam.
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