Ajmal urges intellectuals to ensure final NRC accepted as document for resolving foreigners' issue

AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal on Sunday appealed to intellectuals to come forward and ensure that the final NRC is accepted as a document to resolve the foreigners' issue in Assam. The NRC was updated following the demand of people and all political parties of Assam, and the nearly five-year-long intensive exercise to prepare it under the supervision of the Supreme Court should not be rejected outright as is being done by most stakeholders, Ajmal said in a statement.

"There are certain forces that have outrightly rejected the NRC and in such circumstances prominent citizens, particularly intellectuals, must come forward to ensure that Assam, which has remained backward for the past 40 years, do not face new problems," the Lok Sabha MP from Dhubri said. "The NRC is going to be a strong document which will help in resolving the foreigners' issue and everybody should accept it," the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief said.

It has been the AIUDF's policy that names of not a single foreigner should enter the NRC but all genuine Indian citizens, irrespective of community, religion or linguistic affiliation should be in it, he said. The updating of the NRC was an enormous exercise and it is quite possible that certain errors may have been there but there are remedial measures which people can take to ensure that they are not left out of the list, he said.

"Any person whose name has been excluded can approach the Foreigners Tribunals, then the High Court and finally the Supreme Court to ensure that they are not declared foreigners," Ajmal added. The major stakeholders AASU, Assam Public Works (APW) and All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU), and all party in the NRC cases in the Supreme Court along with the Congress and the BJP have expressed their dissatisfaction with the Final NRC.

The final NRC was released by the NRC State Coordinator on Saturday with 3,11,21,004 of the total 3,30,27,661 applicants included and 19,06,657 excluded. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) has been prepared to identify Indian citizens living in Assam since March 24, 1971 or before.

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