The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) on Wednesday said it has full faith in the updation process of the NRC and claimed that the apprehension expressed by various political parties is a ploy to confuse people as they want to protect their votebanks.
The AASU is a signatory to the Assam Accord, a 1985 document that provided for "detection, deletion and deportation" of illegal foreigners from Assam.
Under the monitoring of the Supreme Court, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is being updated in the BJP-ruled state to prepare a list of genuine Indians. The final version of it is slated to be published on August 31.
"We have full faith in the process. Different political parties are trying to confuse the people by expressing apprehensions at a stage when the NRC is to be published in a few days," AASU Chief Advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya told PTI.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also the BJP president, and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had earlier "hailed the publication of the draft NRC but suddenly they started criticising the process," he said.
Former Congress chief minister Tarun Gogoi who had claimed it was his government that initiated the NRC process, recently alleged that the register is going to be just a "scrap of paper", Bhattacharya claimed.
"Political parties seek to protect their vote banks involving both Hindus and Muslims and these criticisms are just a ploy to confuse people," he alleged.
The BJP government is there at the Centre since 2014 and in the state from 2016, and both have the power to resolve the foreigners' issue, the AASU leader said. "Before both the assembly poll and recent Lok Sabha elections, the BJP promised that they will ensure publication of a foreigner-free NRC but now they have adopted a different stand," the AASU leader said. The BJP and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad are claiming that a large number of foreigners have been included in the NRC drafts.
The state and central governments had moved the Supreme Court seeking permission for 20 per cent sample re-verification to find out wrongful inclusions and exclusions of persons in the NRC. The apex court rejected the plea on July 23.
The AASU leader urged political parties and the governments not to confuse people but cooperate in the process of the NRC publication. During the last 34 years since the signing of the Assam Accord, there has been no detection or deportation or sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border, Bhattacharya claimed.