NRC update-Issues involved

The up-gradation of National Register of Citizens(NRC) was agreed upon by the parties involved in the Assam Accord,1985-The Government of India, the Government of Assam and All Assam Students Union(AASU). Due to some reasons or the other, the upgradation of NRC could not materialise for more than two decades.  The government has recently decided to update NRC at the earliest after the Supreme Court directed the state government to complete the process by 2016.

The notification issued by the government mandates that the legacy data was to be the criterion on which the citizenship would be determined. The legacy data is a primary set of documents consisting of National Register of Citizens,1951 and the electoral roll preceding the midnight of March 24,1971. Alternatively, a person could submit 12 documents as prescribed by the government to prove one’s identity. The exercise would take place as per the provisions in the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the citizenship rules, 2003.

However, the procedures involved in the upgradation of NRC is not without contradictions. First, all the names of the genuine citizens are not correctly mentioned in the NRC data and electoral rolls. In this case, many citizens would face difficulty in verifying their present documents with that of their ancestors. For instance, ‘Boro’ used to be the popular surname of the members belonging to ‘Bodo’ community in those days. With the passage of time, they altered their surnames to Swargiary, Basumatary, among others.  Therefore, it is still unclear as to how the issue pertaining to the surnames would be resolved.

Second, many people in Assam, mostly adivasis, did not feel the necessity to preserve the documents for future use. Since the rules mandate that certain documents would have to be produced in order to claim the citizenship rights, the original inhabitants might be harassed in the name of illegal immigrants.

Third, many illegal immigrants have made legal documents, like Voter identity cards, ration cards and so forth by fraudulent means. According to an estimate, such illegal immigrants would number up to an overwhelming figure exceeding one million. The issue as to how the government plans to ascertain their true identity remains to be seen.

It is indeed heartening that the Government has initiated the herculean task by setting up NRC Seva Kendras and urging the people to submit their particulars within a time-frame. This would help in identifying the illegal immigrants and then deporting them to their homelands. At the same time, the government should sort out the roadblocks that would come in the way of an effective determination of citizenship rights.