New Delhi: A fact-finding team set up by a civil society group alleges bias in an update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2016.
The report which was made public at a press conference in New Delhi on July 13 states, “up till March 2016, the verification process was deemed to be fair and objective, according to widespread perception, including within the civil society. Its rules and guidelines were apparently being followed. Post April 2016 elections, with the BJP coming to power, difficulties, problems and accusations of bias began to stalk Assam.”
The report further claimed “unofficial and unconfirmed estimates claim that as many as 35 lakh people might be directly or indirectly” excluded once the final draft NRC is readied by this July 30.
The 12-member team under the banner of United Against Hate, visited parts of the states and questioned the procedure of citizenship enumeration, categorically stating that “injustices (are being) meted out to Bangla-speaking Muslims and Hindus on the basis of language and religion” and if not checked and stopped on time, “a volcano can erupt” in the state.