Assam: The citizenship/ foreigners/ illegal migration issue
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History
Chronology: 1948-2005
From: ‘No one will be treated as foreigner if name not in NRC final draft’ July 30, 2018: The Times of India
With the second draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) coming out on Monday, CM Sarbananada Sonowal tells Neeraj Chauhan nobody will be treated as a foreigner if his/her name is not on the draft list. Excerpts
The NRC second draft will be out. What is the government’s strategy to deal with the situation and how will you make sure that all sides are satisfied?
When we came to power two years ago, we promised to free the state from illegal immigrants. Updating the NRC is an important tool to identify illegal migrants. We also believe that a flawless NRC will be the primary security shield for people living in the Barak-Brahmaputra valleys, hills and plains of Assam. One must remember that the NRC to be published is only a draft and genuine citizens who are left out from the draft NRC need not panic as they could still get their names enrolled in the final NRC.
What about the people who couldn’t prove their citizenship once the NRC is out tomorrow?
No one will be treated as a foreigner if his or her name does not appear in the NRC draft. Once the complete draft is out, ample opportunity will be given to applicants to prove their eligibility.
Are you anticipating violence in the state once the list is out?
I have faith in the political maturity of the people. We all have seen how the people acted when the first draft NRC was published. I am sure that this time also, people of Assam will display similar maturity.
Has any decision been taken on deportation of illegal immigrants once the list is out? Is there a plan?
The final NRC, which will be out after going through a legal process under the supervision of the Supreme Court, will provide us a tool to distinguish between a bona fide Indian and a foreigner. So, our priority is to identify foreigners. What steps government takes will come next.
What are your comments on the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which proposes to give citizenship to religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan etc.
The Centre has assured that before taking any step, the people of Assam will be taken into confidence.
Issues as in 1971
[ From the archives of The Times of India]
Dhananjay Mahapatra
How illegal immigrants morphed into an invaluable vote-bank
It can happen only in India, where vote-bank politics scores decisively over national interest and issues relating to India’s sovereignty. How else can one explain the cunningness shown by the Centre and the Assam government to disregard the remedial measures suggested by two screaming Supreme Court judgments, which highlighted the demographic aggression faced by Assam from incessant influx of illegal migrants?
In 1971, India was complaining in the UN about the aggression it faced from the huge population shift that was taking place from East Pakistan to its northeastern part. Strangely, 40 years later, the illegal migrants have become an invaluable vote-bank for certain political parties, which hedge the question of their identification and deportation, despite clear directions from the apex court in two rulings in 2005 and 2006.
In 1971, the Sixth Committee of General Assembly was debating to define “aggression”. India’s representative Dr Nagendra Singh voiced serious concern about the incessant flow of migrants from East Pakistan into India and termed it as an aggression to unnaturally change the demographic pattern. Surely, India was preparing a ground for lending active military support to Mukti Bahini in the creation of Bangladesh. Dr Singh supported Burma (now Myanmar), UK and others and said a definition of aggression excluding indirect methods would be incomplete and therefore, dangerous. “For example, there could be a unique type of bloodless aggression from a vast and incessant flow of millions of human beings forced to flee into another state. If this invasion of unarmed men in totally unmanageable proportion were to not only impair the economic and political well-being of the receiving victim state but to threaten its very existence, I am afraid, Mr Chairman, it would have to be categorized as aggression,” he said.
“In such a case, there may not be use of armed force across the frontier since the use of force may be totally confined within one’s territorial boundary, but if this results in inundating the neighbouring state by millions of fleeing citizens of the offending state, there could be an aggression of a worst order,” he had said while arguing for a broader meaning of aggression to include unmanageable influx of migrants. The illegal migration did not subside even after Bangladesh came into being. A sixyear violent agitation against illegal migrants led to signing of the Assam Accord in 1985 between Assam student leaders and then PM Rajiv Gandhi. It promised a comprehensive solution to the festering problem. In 1998, the then Assam governor sent a secret report to the President informing that influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh continued unabated into the state, perceptibly changing its demographic pattern and reducing the Assamese people to a minority in their own state. It had become a contributory factor for outbreak of insurgency in the state, he said.
The SC in the Sarbananda Sonowal [2005 (5) SCC 665] case quoted from the governor’s report to say, “Illegal migration not only affects the people of Assam but has more dangerous dimensions of greatly undermining our national security. ISI is very active in Bangladesh supporting militants in Assam. Muslim militant groups have mushroomed in Assam. The report also says that this can lead to the severing of the entire land mass of the northeast with all its resources from the rest of the country which will have disastrous strategic and economic consequences.”
The political game over illegal migrants came to the fore in 2000. The AGP government in August 2000 presented disturbing statistics to the SC — Muslim population of Assam went up by 77.42% between 1971 and 1991 while Hindu population increased only by 41.89%. In September 2000, this affidavit was quickly withdrawn by the Tarun Gogoi government immediately after coming to power. The Gogoi government also defended continuance of Illegal Migrants Determination through Tribunal (IMDT) Act, repeal of which was sought by the AGP government on the ground that it was totally ineffective in identifying illegal migrants.
The SC termed incessant flow of illegal migrants into Assam as “aggression” and castigated the Centre for failing in its duty under Article 355 to protect the state. It said, “There can be no manner of doubt that Assam is facing ‘external aggression and internal disturbance’ on account of largescale illegal migration of Bangladeshis. It, therefore, becomes the duty of Union of India to take all measures for protection of Assam from such external aggression and internal disturbance as enjoined in Article 355.”
It quashed the ill-suited IMDT Act and directed effective identification of illegal migrants through tribunals under the Foreigners Act. Instead of implementing the directive, the Union and Assam governments attempted to obfuscate the issue by passing a new notification giving relief to illegal migrants from imminent identification. SC saw through the game and in December 5, 2006, pulled up both the governments [Sonowal-II, 2007 (1) SCC 174]. The problem of illegal migrants raised its ugly face yet again in Assam through recent riots. Other northeastern states have also been nervously watching similar demographic situations building up. It is time for the Centre and Assam, who are morally in contempt of the two SC rulings, to take concrete and decisive measures to solve the problem. Else, we will witness Assam-like flare-ups in more northeastern states.
2017: 90% of Assam natives don't have land-ownership papers
Prabin Kalita, May 2, 2017: The Times of India
A state-sponsored committee on protection of land rights of indigenous people, headed by former chief election commissioner Hari Shankar Brahma, has estimated that 90% of the natives of Assam do not possess permanent land `patta' (legal document for land ownership), while at least 8 lakh native families are landless.
According to an additional deputy commissioner of Nagaon district, about 70% of the land is owned by nonnatives there, which is perhaps the only district where non-indigenous people possess such a share of land, Brahma said.
The committee, formed in February as per CM Sarbananda Sonowal's instructions, is expected to submit its recommendations on how to protect the land rights of the indigenous people to the government in June.
“In all of Assam, 63 lakh bigha (1 bigha= 14,400 sq ft) of government land, including forest land, grazing ground and others, are under illegal occupation, while at least 7 to 8 lakh native families do not have an inch of land. Ninety per cent of the native people do not have myadi patta (permanent land settlement), they have either eksonia patta (annual land settlement) or are occupying government land,“ said Brahma.The committee also found that many natives of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh and Majuli districts, whose forefathers lost their land in the earthquake of 1950, own neither land nor documents. The committee has also been mandated to review the British-era Assam Land and Revenue Regulation Act, 1886 and suggest measures for its modification.
Sonowal, while deciding to set up the committee, had said the government was taking steps to formulate a new land policy because “without land there can be no existence of the Assamese race and it is the government's fundamental duty to protect the land of the original dwellers of the state and no compromise would be made in this regard“.
National Register of Citizens
December 2017/ Assam recognizes 1.9cr of 3.29cr citizens as legal
Assam publishes first draft of NRC with 1.9 crore names, January 1, 2018: The Times of India
HIGHLIGHTS
First draft of the National Register of Citizens was today published with the names of 1.9 crore people
The rest of the names are under various stages of verification, and the entire process will be completed within 2018
People can check their names in the first draft at NRC sewa kendras across Assam
The much-awaited first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published with the names of 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore total applicants in Assam recognizing them as legal citizens of India. The rest of the names are under various stages of verification, Registrar General of India Sailesh said at a press conference held at midnight where he made the draft public.
"This is a part draft. It contains 1.9 crore persons+ , who have been verified till now. The rest of the names are under various stages of verification. As soon as the verification is done, we will come out with another draft," he said.
NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela said those people whose names have been excluded in the first list need not worry.
"It is a tedious process to verify the names. So there is a possibility that some names within a single family may not be there in the first draft," said Hajela.
"There is no need to panic as rest of the documents are under verification," he said.
Asked about the possible timeframe for the next draft, the RGI said it will be decided as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court, under whose monitoring the document is being prepared -- in its next hearing in April.
The entire process will be completed within 2018, Sailesh said.
The application process started in May, 2015 and a total of 6.5 crore documents were received from 68.27 lakh families across Assam.
"The process of accepting complaints will start once the final draft is published as rest of the names are likely to appear in that," Hajela said.
People can check their names in the first draft at NRC sewa kendras across Assam from 8am. They can also check for information online and through SMS services.
The RGI informed that the ground work for this mammoth exercise began in December 2013 and 40 hearings have taken place in the Supreme Court over the last three years.
Assam, which faced influx from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC, first prepared in 1951. The Supreme Court, which is monitoring the entire process, had ordered that the first draft of the NRC be published by December 31 after completing the scrutiny of over two crore claims along with that of around 38 lakh people whose documents were suspect.
The National Register of Citizens, 1951-2017
From Naresh Mitra, January 2, 2018 The Times of India
See graphic:
Beginning 1951, a brief history of the National Register of Citizenship
40% names not included in first draft
The first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), released at midnight on Sunday, had several surprises, with rebel leader Paresh Baruah finding a place and senior political leaders, including Lok Sabha MP and All India United Democratic Front chief
Badruddin Ajmal, failing to make it to the draft.
Altogether, 1.9 crore names out of 3.3 crore applicants were included in the first draft. Registrar General of India Sailesh said the verification process of the remaining 1.4 crore applicants (40%) was still on.
Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal had said on Sunday that not a single genuine Indian citizen would be excluded from the final NRC.
Ulfa (Independent) commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, who has been seeking secession of Assam from India, is believed to be holed up somewhere along the China-Myanmar border.
The names of five of his family members also appear. “Our entire family is happy. I had submitted the application at the NRC seva kendra myself. So we were certain his name would feature in the list. He may not be aware of his inclusion,” Baruah’s sister-in-law Renu said on Monday.
Badruddin Ajmal missing from list
The names of Baruah’s wife, Boby Bhuyan Baruah, and his two sons Ankur and Akash, do not figure in the list, though. “We could not getthe namesofhis wife and children included because some documents were missing. We will complete the process in the next phase,” Renu said.
Baruah’s brother Bikul, a teacher, said the rebel leader had left home 37 years ago. “I was 12 when he left home. We are elated his name is there along with all family members. He is a son of the soil. He has taken birthin this village. So there is no question of his name not appearing,” he said.
However, many leaders from across the political spectrum don’t figure in the first list. Prominent among them is Ajmal, who represents Muslim-majority Dhubri, bordering Bangladesh, in western Assam. Besides Ajmal, the names of his brother Sirajuddin, also a Lok Sabha MP, and two sons are missing. “Their documents are being verified,” AIUDF general secretary Aminul Islam said. AIUDFMLAHafizBashir Ahmed Quasimi and his family have also notbeen includedin the draft NRC, Islam added.
BJP MLA from Hojai Shiladitya Dev who had in November triggered a controversy when hesaid mostMuslims in the state are from Bangladesh, said his name was missing from thedraftbut thoseof his family members were included. “I am not concerned... I can understand the tremendous pressure under which those involved in the process were working,” hesaid.
CongressMLANurulHuda alsowoke up tofind his name missing. “Like me, 70% of the residents of Rupohihat (which he represents) are yet to be included,” he said.
The religious demographics of Assam: 2011
The Times of India, Aug 26, 2015
See graphic
Bharti Jain
Muslim majority districts in Assam up
Assam, where illegal immigration from Bangladesh has been a concern, continues to show demographic changes with the 2011 Census finding nine of its 27 districts to be Muslim-majority . Adding to six such districts listed in 2001 Census, the 2011 Census has shown Bongaigaon, Morigaon and Darrang to be Muslim-majority. In 2001 Census, the districts in Assam with a larger Muslim population as compared to Hindus, were Barpeta, Dhubri, Karimganj, Goalpara, Hailakandi and Nagaon. Bongaigaon then had 38.5% Muslim population, Morigaon 47.6% and Darrang 35.5%.
As per 2011 Census, Dhubri has 15.5 lakh Muslims compared to 3.88 lakh Hindus, Goalpara has 5.8 lakh Muslims and 3.48 lakh Hindus, Nagaon 15.6 lakh Muslims and 12.2 lakh Hindus, Barpeta 11.98 lakh Muslims and 4.92 lakh Hindus, Morigaon 5.03 lakh Muslims and 4.51 lakh Hindus, Karimganj 6.9 lakh Muslims and 5.3 lakh Hindus, Hailakandi 3.97 lakh Muslims and 2.5 lakh Hindus, Bongaigaon 3.71 lakh Muslims and 3.59 lakh Hindus and Darrang 5.97 lakh Muslims and 3.27 lakh Hindus. Other districts with a significant share of Muslims are Cachar (6.5 lakh against 10.3 lakh Hindus), Kamrup (6.01 lakh Muslims against 8.77 Hindus) and Nalbari (2.77 lakh Muslims against 4.91 lakh Hindus).
In 1998, then governor of Assam S K Sinha had, in a report on illegal influx of Bangladeshi immigrants into Assam, warned that the “silent demographic invasion of Assam may result in the loss of the geostrategically vital districts of Lower Assam“.
