The 40 Lakh Excluded Are Not Illegal, Says NRC Assam Coordinator

The coordinator also acknowledged that errors were possible, and a final list will be released.

Villagers check their names as Assam government published the draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC).

(Photo: IANS)

After BJP President Amit Shah's statement that the NRC was weeding out "ghuspethiye" (infiltrators) in Assam, the NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela termed these descriptions as "too premature", clarifying that all 40,04,707 people left out of the "complete draft" cannot be subsumed within such a terminology, and neither can they be called illegal migrants, The Indian Express reported.

“No, we can’t say all these 40 lakh are ghuspethiye,” Prateek Hajela, the NRC coordinator, told The Indian Express in an interview. Hajela added that only judicial scrutiny could establish whether or not these can be called an illegal migrants.

The Supreme Court-appointed coordinator reiterated that people will get a chance to prove their credentials, and a final list will be released.

These people will get another chance to prove their credentials. Then we will come out with a final NRC. The NRC process will be over then. Even after that, whether a person is an illegal migrant or not is something that can be decided only by judicial scrutiny and that is through a certain set of codes, which has been established in Assam… called the Foreigners Tribunal.

Prateek Hajela, the NRC coordinator, to The Indian Express

The coordinator also acknowledged to The Indian Express that errors were possible as the list was a result of a manual process.

Yes, there could be errors. It’s a manual process. Human beings are carrying out such a large number of operations, and the law itself recognises that there might be errors. There might be wrong exclusions. There might be wrong inclusions.

When asked whether those listed in the 30 July draft could be recognised as legal citizens, Hajela said, "They have been able to establish their credentials before us during rounds of verification that we have carried out. But again, somebody might object to any entry, which he or she thinks is not correct."

Hajela's remarks are significant at a time when there is a political battle over the NRC draft process.

(Inputs from The Indian Express)