ABMSU, Kokrajhar slams new NRC Coordinator for ‘controversial’ remarks

Our Correspondent

Kokrajhar: The All Bodoland Minority Students’ Union (ABMSU), Kokrajhar, Gossaigaon and Porbhotjhora district committees on Wednesday slammed the new State NRC Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma for his ‘minority appeasement’ remark and said that Sarma was unfit to run the process of NRC in Assam.

A two-hour protest was held at Children’s Park, Kokrajhar on Wednesday seeking proper inclusion of all genuine Indian citizens in the final NRC and giving justice to the family of Lafiqul Islam, former president of ABMSU who was killed by unknown miscreants.

Talking to reporters, president of Kokrajhar district committee ABMSU, Nazrul Islam said the minority people had been supporting the NRC update process in Assam under supervision of the Supreme Court of India. He said that no genuine Indian citizen should be left out but there were many genuine religious minority citizens whose names had not figured in the final NRC published on August 31. “We have organized several awareness programmes on how to claim citizenship in the appeal court,” he said, adding that they wanted all genuine citizens who have requisite documents to be included in the final NRC.

Islam said the Government of Assam appointed Hitesh Dev Sarma as the new NRC Coordinator of Assam on November 9. He said the new coordinator, after assuming duty, had started questioning secularism and minority appeasement policy in social media sites. He reiterated that Sarma claimed on Facebook that minority appeasement policy since the last seven decades had changed the definition of secularism.

The ABMSU leader said the new NRC Coordinator had even claimed that there were lakhs and lakhs of illegal Bangladeshis staying in Assam. His claim of presence of lakhs of Bangladeshis even after publication of final NRC had brought fear and apprehension in the minds of the minority people, said Islam. He termed Sarma as unfit for being NRC State coordinator as he had no faith in the secular and democratic process under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

Later, the ABMSU sent a memorandum to the Chief Justice of India through the Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner, urging him to look into the remarks of the new NRC State coordinator.

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