Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that out of the 19 lakh individuals excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for the state, seven lakh were Muslims.
Additionally, five lakh Bengali Hindus, two lakh Assamese Hindu groups including Koch-Rajbongshi, Das, Kalita, Sarma (Assamese), and 1.5 lakh Gorkhas were also among those left out of the register.
The NRC serves as a register to identify and potentially deport “illegal” immigrants.
Published on August 31, 2019, residents were required to demonstrate that they or their ancestors had arrived in Assam before midnight on March 24, 1971, to be included in the list.
A total of over 19 lakh individuals, constituting 5.77% of applicants, were omitted from the final list, according to the breakdown provided by the CM, accounting for 15.5 lakh individuals. The status of the remaining 3.5 lakh individuals remains unclear.
Sarma further mentioned that three lakh to six lakh of those excluded from the NRC could potentially apply for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the rules for which were notified on March 11.
The CAA aims to expedite Indian citizenship for refugees from six minority religious communities, excluding Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, provided they have resided in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014.
The combination of the CAA and NRC could facilitate the government’s expulsion of all individuals deemed “illegal” migrants, followed by the re-entry of Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians, while Muslims may be denied the same opportunity.
The BJP has expressed its intention to implement the NRC nationwide.