Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has stated that an estimated three to five lakh individuals are expected to seek Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state. He said that these applicants would primarily consist of those who were left out of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC).
He also noted that the NRC list excluded approximately seven lakh Muslims and five lakh Hindu-Bengalis, along with others.
Many Hindu-Bengalis had come at different points of time and stayed at refugee camps. When they applied for inclusion in NRC, they submitted a stamped paper as proof of having stayed at such camps. But, Prateek Hajela (former NRC state coordinator) did not accept the paper. As a result, names of many Hindu-Bengalis were not included in the NRC, Sarma said
He mentioned that while a significant portion of the 5 lakh Hindu-Bengalis who had applied for inclusion in the NRC would opt to submit applications under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, others would pursue legal avenues. Additionally, the Chief Minister asserted that those excluded from the NRC comprised 2 lakh individuals identified as proper Assamese, including those with surnames like Das, the Koch-Rajbongshi community, and 1.5 lakh Gorkhas.
Applications under the CAA will be three-five lakh, with a 10 per cent margin of error. There won’t be any 15 or 18 or 20 lakh or 1.5 crore applicants in Assam. After being in politics for so long, I have that much grip on the state, the BJP leader asserted.
The Supreme Court-monitored National Register of Citizens (NRC) was released on August 31, 2019, and it resulted in the exclusion of 19 lakh out of 3.4 crore applicants.
Earlier this month, the Centre implemented the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, by notifying the rules. This action comes four years after the law was passed by Parliament. The law aims to expedite citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.