A topic of much debate and discussion, the updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam has garnered considerable attention in the last few years. While the process formally kicked off in February 2015 under the monitoring of the Supreme Court, the legal journey leading to it had begun much earlier. In July 2009, an organisation named Assam Public Works (APW) had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court pleading for an updated NRC in the state. The objective was to detect the illegal foreigners residing in Assam and strip them of citizenship rights. After several hearings, the Supreme Court finally agreed with the petitioner in November 2013 and directed the central government to initiate the exercise in Assam.

Now, after a tedious process spanning over four years which included the publications of a partial draft in December 2017 and a complete draft in July 2018, the NRC is headed for its final publication on August 31. But as the deadline approaches, the main petitioner in the case- APW- is disappointed and it raises a number of questions over the current exercise. To talk about those and other related aspects, Newslaundry met APW President, Aabhijeet Sharma for an exclusive interview. Following are the excerpts:

NL: What drove you to approach the Supreme Court in 2009? What was your key argument in the petition?

AS: We realized that [taking recourse to] the legal route was the only choice available to us for an effective solution of the decades-old illegal foreigners’ problem in Assam. Hence, we filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court ten years ago. Our main argument was that around 41 lakh illegal Bangladeshi foreigners had found their names in the electoral rolls of the Assam assembly election in 2006. The figure was based on some mathematical calculations which, among other things, included a comparison of growth of birth rates between Assam and the rest of India. The court later accepted our argument and directed the central government to begin updating the NRC.

NL: But now, even as an updated NRC is almost complete, you seem to have complaints over it. Though the Supreme Court has rejected your plea, you continue to insist on a hundred per cent re-verification of names in as many as 22 districts. At a time when the central and the state governments have demanded only a partial re-verification, why this clamour for a full re-verification?

AS: The reason is simple. The NRC which is being updated now has failed to be a foolproof document. It has the names of many illegal foreigners from several districts. A partial re-verification of names, say a ten per cent or a twenty per cent as demanded by the government, cannot guarantee a document free of illegal foreigners. If a re-verification is to take place, it must be a full re-verification. It is unfortunate that the apex court did not agree with us.

NL: How can you say that the draft NRC has included names of illegal foreigners when all such information has been classified so far?

AS: We have gathered many evidences proving the inclusion of illegal foreigners in the draft NRC. To give you an example, Hemen Das, the then Deputy Commissioner of Morigaon district, himself acknowledged that as many as 49 families of illegal foreigners had been included in the draft NRC. Worse further, one Khairul Islam, who was later detected as an illegal foreigner, had been working at an NRC Seva Kendra in a place called Mikirbheta in the same district. These are evidences from one district alone. We know of cases from other districts too and we have provided them all to the court. A full re-verification was therefore very much necessary before publishing the final document.

NL: Recently the NRC authority sent notices to more than thirty thousand people in a couple of districts in western Assam calling them to faraway centres for a re-verification. This resulted in great distress and confusion among the people. If a hundred per cent re-verification was to take place at this stage, it would possibly create a greater chaos and an indefinite delay.

AS: The manner in which the hearings were held at an extremely short notice of 24-48 hours was absolutely wrong and unacceptable. Most people were poor who had already suffered harassment in the process earlier. Moreover, if the final NRC was to come out on July 31, as had been decided earlier, these people would have definitely been included. So serving those notices in the first week of August did not make any sense. Now, regarding the full re-verification, we argued that the NRC authority should follow a well-planned procedure which would not create trouble for anyone. If that required a few more months to prepare the final document, so be it. When we have waited for more than thirty years [since the Assam Agitation], a little more delay is totally negligible.

NL: Your organization only seems to emphasize the fact that foreigners have found their names in the draft NRC. But there are numerous evidences from all over Assam of genuine Indian citizens being left out of it as well. Why are you silent on this aspect?

AS: We believe that detecting illegal foreigners living in the state is a much more difficult task at hand [than anything else]. Therefore, if their names have made it to the draft NRC, and they have as I told you, we should be more concerned about that. If any genuine Indian citizen has been left out, s/he has the option of appealing before the relevant authority with necessary documents. We agree that there have been many such cases [concerning genuine Indians] and we will definitely raise the issue. My point is, either way, it proves that a full re-verification was a must before publishing the final document. Hence, we firmly believe that the current updated NRC will not be an error-free register.

NL: You have clearly expressed your displeasure at the work of the NRC authority so far. What makes you believe that a round of full re-verification under the same body would have brought out a correct document?

AS: Seeing how the exercise has panned out till now, we can’t say we retain much confidence in them [the NRC authority in Assam]. There have been mismanagement, systemic flaws and even some cases of corruption at the ground level. But despite all that, erecting a new body of officials is not possible. For the re-verification, therefore, we proposed the formation of a committee which would oversee the work and report directly to the Supreme Court. We even suggested the names of a few eminent citizens of Assam from different walks of life to constitute the committee. As a second step, we suggested that the officials involved in updating the NRC should be shuffled in a way that those who had worked in a certain district so far were now allotted a different, faraway district for re-verifying the names there. This would have eliminated any possible risk of bias and manipulation. These two steps would have ensured fairness even under the same authority.

NL: The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) is a key resolution of the ruling BJP which allows the movement of non-Muslims from Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries, even without necessary papers, to India in order to protect them from alleged persecution. But it directly violates the logic and purpose of an updated NRC in Assam. In such a backdrop, how hopeful are you about the NRC’s future as a legal safeguard for Assam?

AS: Our position on the CAB is very clear. The moment it is passed in the parliament, we will move the Supreme Court challenging its validity in the backdrop of the updated NRC in Assam. Such a stance will apply to any legislation that threatens the NRC.

NL: There seems to be some other uncertainty looming over the fate of NRC in Assam. A petition filed by Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha in the Supreme Court challenges the cut-off date- March 24, 1971- as applied in the current updating exercise. As of now, the petition has not been disposed of and is pending before a constitutional bench. This creates an awkward situation over the NRC to be published on August 31.

AS: Yes, there will be ground for legal uncertainty in this scenario. The Supreme Court should have decided on this petition before proceeding with the publication of the final NRC. As I said earlier, a delay by a few more months would have been perfectly excusable in the interest of a correct and acceptable NRC. This would have allowed time for a full re-verification as well as removal of all legal obstacles. Now that none of this happened, we do not hesitate to say that the NRC coming out on August 31 will be an incomplete document, a ‘half-done NRC’.

NL: Since you are unsatisfied and unconvinced with the upcoming NRC, being the main petitioner in the case, do you plan to pursue the matter further?

AS: Yes, we do. As the current exercise is bogus in our view, we have already thought of strategies to continue our fight for a correct NRC in the days ahead. But we can’t disclose anything now. Our plans will be made clear once the document is out on August 31.

NL: What is your stand on all those people who will be eventually left out of the final NRC?

AS: Our main objective is that the names of all illegal foreigners should be detected and deleted from the electoral rolls. As of now, there is no bilateral treaty between India and Bangladesh which allows for deportation. In this backdrop, we want the government to provide the illegal foreigners with work permits which will allow them to stay here and earn their livelihood. Denial of political rights to these people is our priority.

NL: Do you think only a correct NRC will bring a closure to the decades-old illegal foreigners’ issue in Assam?

AS: No, NRC alone cannot do that. An equally important measure is the sealing of the porous international border between Bangladesh and Assam. Both the processes are complementary. The government must therefore complete the sealing at the earliest.

NL: The BJP has now proposed to update the NRC all over India. Any reaction?

AS: I am a little unsure about how that can happen. It’s because there are certain inherent legal contradictions in the matter. For example, the cut-off dates for determining Indian citizenship differ between Assam and the rest of the country. These technical issues have to be addressed before undertaking such a vast exercise.