PTI, GUWAHATI/NEW DELHI: A massive Supreme Court-monitored exercise to identify genuine Indian nationals living in Assam today excluded over 40 lakh people from the final draft list, triggering a political slugfest with the opposition alleging that it was the BJP’s “gameplan” to divide the people for electoral gains.
The issue rocked both house of Parliament after which Home Minister Rajnath Singh appealed to the opposition not to politicise the “sensitive” matter as the list has been published on the directives of the Supreme Court and the Centre has “no role” in it. He asserted that no “coercive” action will be taken against those whose names were excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft list.
The ruling BJP in Assam had raised the issue of foreign nationals in Assam during the 2016 assembly polls, promising an error-free NRC.
At a press conference in Guwahati, Registrar General of India Sailesh announced that 2.89 crore people were found to be eligible for inclusion in the complete draft of the ambitious draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) out of a total 3.29 crore applicants. Around 40.07 lakh applicants, however, did not find a place in the document, casting a shadow over their fate.
Soon after, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hit out at the Centre, accusing it of resorting to “vote bank politics”.
