No illegal Bangladeshi Muslims in Assam, claims legislator

With the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process underway to detect the illegal foreigners residing in the country, Sherman Ali, the suspended Congress MLA of Assam, claims that there are no illegal Bangladeshi Muslims in the state.

With the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process underway to detect the illegal foreigners residing in the country, Sherman Ali, the suspended Congress MLA of Assam, claims that there are no illegal Bangladeshi Muslims in the state. According to him, the proclaimed figures are only imaginary and are made political worthy, and the number of illegal residents is only limited to a few hundred, not lakhs or thousands.

He questioned if there is, indeed, a huge number of illegal Bangladeshi residents in the state then why they have not been deported back to their country and why the government has not created an extradition agreement with Bangladesh yet. "Why couldn't they make an extradition agreement with Bangladesh? Bangladesh is such a small country. This proves that they are making all these claims only for politics," he said.

He also said that the NRC is being prepared under the strict supervision of the Supreme Court, under the son of the soil of Assam, ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi. According to Ali, by lodging a complaint against NRC anomalies, NRC State Coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma has "disobeyed the Supreme Court" and "attracted its provision of contempt". "It is the Supreme Court that should decide the revision of the preparation of NRC. Hitesh Dev Sarma is a small creature. He cannot speak above the Supreme Court, and neither can the government of Assam," he added.

He also added that if anyone has any doubt regarding the preparation of NRC, further revisions will not solve the matter because some people of Assam just have pre-conceptions in their minds about the number of infiltrators, due to which even multiple revisions will not satisfy them. "If you are not satisfied by the NRC, settle it once and for all by the DNA test," he appealed.

"BJP only wants to keep the issue alive. Since 1975, almost 45 years have gone by, and the voter list has been revised 4 times and declared free from foreigners, but the people still demanded revision. Finally, there was a tripartite agreement under the BJP that the NRC should be prepared as a final solution to this problem. There were many hearings, and objections were raised overnight, but even then, when the number came down to 19 lakh containing only some 4-5 lakh of Muslims, it was a bone of contention. When the first list was published, 40 lakh people were not included in the NRC list, and they were enjoying it. During the election campaign, Amit Shah loudly said that we have identified 40 lakh of foreigners. But when the same process culminated in the deletion of only 19 lakh including 5 lakh Muslims, they were not satisfied," he told ANI. According to him, over the years since 1951, the Muslim population is declining in India. He said that Muslims have not come back since they moved to Pakistan. "Only non-Muslims have come due to religious persecution. If there are, the government is strong enough to take action," he said. (ANI)

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