Bora says NRC with Bangladeshis is dangerous

‘Indigenous people have nothing to worry about non-inclusion into NRC’

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 27: Dispelling fears from the indigenous people of Assam in the event of any of their name not appearing in the complete draft NRC to be published on June 30, 2018, Dispur MLA Atul Bora has said that what they need to be apprehensive of is – the inclusion of names of Bangladeshis in the NRC.

Talking to media in Guwahati on Wednesday, Bora said: “Even if my name does not appear in the complete draft NRC to be published on June 30, I’ve nothing to be surprised at or worried about. This is because the NRC authority will have to include the names of all genuine Indians residing in Assam during the follow-up process that’s going to take place after June 30 before the publication of the final NRC. What’s dangerous is inclusion of Bangladeshis in the NRC as Indians.”

On the number of Bangladeshis staying illegally in Assam, Bora said: “The gossip mill in the State has gone into an overdrive these days that the names of ten lakh Bangladeshi NRC applicants are not going to appear in the complete draft NRC going to be published on June 30. Does this mean that around 30 lakh Bangladeshis staying in Assam will be taken as genuine Indians? We all know that there are around 40 Bangladeshis staying in Assam.”

On detected or declared Bangladeshis staying in Assam, Bora said: “What’ll be the fate of Bangladeshi NRC applicants in the event of their names not included in the NRC? Will the Bangladesh Government accept them? India doesn’t have any extradition treaty with Bangladesh. If the Bangladesh Government doesn’t accept them, they will continue to stay in Assam without citizenship right.”

On the apprehension over the would-be law-and-order situation in the State after June 30, 2018, Bora said: “How come foreigners create law-and-order problems in Assam for non-inclusion of their names in NRC when there are a whole lot of security personnel and the Army?”

On voting rights, Bora raised a question: “Will the Election Commission of India revise the electoral roll of Assam on its own without consulting the NRC to be published? If the NRC is not consulted while revising the voter list in Assam, the NRC update will be a futile exercise.”