Will resign even if one person who has not applied for NRC gets citizenship: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

The state police has issued legal notices to leaders of 16 Opposition political parties for calling a 'hartal' (strike) to register their protests against the CAA.

Guwahati: Countering the claims by the anti-CAA agitators in Assam that lakhs of Hindu Bangladeshis would get Indian citizenship through the CAA, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that only those left out of the NRC in Assam will be allowed to apply for citizenship under the CAA.

Sarma said that he would be the first person to resign if a single person, other than those left out of the NRC, gets citizenship through the CAA. 

"The number of people applying for citizenship under the CAA will be very less. Only those who were left out of the NRC may apply for citizenship. Who will declare himself to be a foreigner to benefit from the CAA? If a single person, other than those left out of the NRC, comes and gets Indian citizenship through the CAA, I will be the first person to resign," Sarma told reporters in Sivasagar, a district dominated by the indigenous people. 

Sarma's claim comes amid protests against the CAA in many parts of the state despite legal notices and threat of legal action against the Opposition political parties and several other organisations leading the agitations.

The state police on Monday night issued legal notices to leaders of 16 Opposition political parties for calling a "hartal" (strike) to register their protests against the CAA.

NRC 'confusion'

More than 19.06 lakh people were left out of the final draft of the NRC released in August 2019. More than 3.30 crore people had then applied for inclusion in the NRC list, which was updated with the cut-off date of March 24, 1971. This was done to resolve the state's long-standing issue about 'foreigners' residing in the state. If individuals could prove, with valid documents, that they or their forefathers lived in Assam on or before March 24, 1971, they were included in the "final draft" of the NRC.

But the Registrar General of India, the nodal agency in charge of updating the NRC under the supervision of the Supreme Court, is yet to release the final NRC list. Those left out of the NRC have also not yet been officially informed about the reasons that led to their exclusion. 

As per the guidelines of the NRC, those failing to make it to the final draft, can move the Foreigner Tribunals and later, the courts (including the Supreme Court) to prove their Indian citizenship, before applying for Indian citizenship.

But release of the CAA rules by the Centre (on March 11) before the process for appeal in the tribunals has left those left out of the NRC draft confused. Petitions are also pending in the Supreme Court against the cut-off-date of the NRC.

The office of the NRC co-ordinators even submitted a petition in the Supreme Court seeking reverification of the 2019 "final draft" of the NRC. 

Under the CAA, non-Muslims, who had migrated to India till December 2014 due to "persecution" in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan can now apply for Indian citizenship. But the agitators in Assam claim that this would allow a large number of Bengali Hindus, who had migrated earlier, to get Indian citizenship and thereby reduce the indigenous people of Assam to the status of being the minority community in their own state.

'Data of the applicants will remain online in the public domain' 

Sarma said that the agitators, who have been claiming that lakhs of people from neighbouring Bangladesh would get Indian citizenship, will have to answer once the process for online enrollment of the applicants under the CAA is over in the next 45 to 60-days.

"Everything will be done online and the data of the applicants will remain in the public domain. Then people will easily come to know the number of the people applying for Indian citizenship under the CAA." 

Sarma asked the agitators to fight the case against the CAA in the Supreme Court as it was made a law in 2019, instead of protesting on the streets and destroying public properties and creating disturbance.

"This BJP government has become autocratic and is trying all unconstitutional means to stop a peaceful and democratic protest. But people are aware of the threats posed by the CAA and they will continue to protest," Sivasagar MLA and an anti-CAA leader, Akhil Gogoi told reporters on Tuesday.