Assam NRC ends suspicion on illegal immigrant number: Congress
The Congress in Assam today said that the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), which excluded 1.9 million people, will end suspicions that there were tens of millions of illegal immigrants in Assam.
"With publication of the final list, the decades old suspicion that tens of millions of illegal immigrants are in Assam will also end. It will also stop harassment of people dubbed as foreigners merely on suspicion," our New Delhi correspondent reports quoting senior Congress leader Debabrata Saikia, leader of the opposition in Assam assembly, as saying.
He said, "We are of the opinion that of the 1.9 million names missing from the list, there would be several who are genuine Indian citizens. Their names have not got included due a variety of factors--ex-parte judgements for failing to turn up for hearings, not getting notices for hearings on time, minor errors in names etc. We will provide legal aid to all genuine Indians."
Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had a dig at the central government saying it has failed to handle the issue in Assam and "should conduct NRC in parliament".
Senior Congress leaders met at the residence of party chief Sonia Gandhi in Delhi today when the NRC issue was discussed.
"They were not able to handle Assam NRC, they may go to other states also. They should conduct NRC in parliament also. I am also an outsider as my father lived in Bangladesh," said Chowdhury.
The Congress meeting was attended by Sonia Gandhi and senior leaders like AK Antony and Gaurav Gogoi among others.
"No genuine citizen should be ousted in any condition and all the genuine citizens must be provided protection," Chowdhury added.
Meanwhile, Assam's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had initially aggressively pushed for NRC, seemed to have lost enthusiasm as the party termed the document "erroneous" claiming it included foreigners and left out genuine Indians.
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