এনআরসিতে নাম না থাকলেও কেউ রাষ্ট্রহীন হবে না : কেন্দ্র সরকার
NRC Exclusion List won’t make anyone stateless: Union Government

September 1: The final NRC list of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published on Saturday morning. Out of a total number of 3,30,27,661 applicants, the names of 3,11,21,004 were included in the final NRC. That means a total of 19,06,657 persons were excluded from the NRC. This created a fear-psychosis among those excluded of going to become ‘stateless.’

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi on Sunday asked the government not to detain or deport anyone whose nationality is not verified. “Any process that could leave large numbers of people without a nationality would be an enormous blow to global efforts to eradicate statelessness,” news agency AFP quoted Mr Grandi as saying.

It is in this backdrop that the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India on Sunday evening came out with an official statement wherein it was asserted that exclusion from the citizen’s list in Assam will not make a person “stateless” or a “foreigner” and they would not be deprived of any rights or entitlements. Further, the ministry said its statement was in view of the “commentaries” in sections of the foreign media about aspects of the final NRC, which were incorrect.

“For those who are not in the final list will not be detained and will continue to enjoy all the rights as before till they have exhausted all the remedies available under the law,” the ministry added. The government said it would also assist the people with the appeals with detailed directions. Another 200 tribunals will be added to the existing 100 tribunals by December to hear the appeals.

The official statement further clarified that, “Anyone excluded from the list at this stage has a right to file an appeal within 120 days of receiving a notification of exclusion to the designated Tribunal. All appeals and excluded cases will be examined by this Tribunal i.e. a judicial process. This judicial process will commence only after the appellate period is over. Thereafter, anyone still aggrieved by any decision of being excluded will have the right to approach the High Court of Assam and then the Supreme Court.”

In another development, Amnesty International India (AII) has expressed its deep concerns about the functioning of the Foreigners’ Tribunals (FT), which will decide the Indian citizenship of those excluded from NRC published on Saturday. AII head Aakar Patel said that the Indian government is within its sovereign right to update NRC. He said, “Several reports have demonstrated how the proceedings before FTs are arbitrary, while their orders are biased and discriminatory. Transparency in FT proceedings and strict adherence to fair trial standards can prevent this impending crisis”