NRC must strike balance

With the release of National Register of Citizens draft in Assam, a serious and massive political controversy has arisen. In the first place, NRC draft is apparently discriminatory between two communities. NRC campaign was started especially for Assam to single out all illegal immigrants living in the state for decades. It is a massive campaign involving govt., private personnel and a huge amount of state exchequer. It has been clearly discriminatory. 32.9 million had applied for entering their names in NRC. Out of 32.9 million people, 40 lakh could not make to it. They have been labelled as illegal immigrants and thereby they are on the verge of losing citizenship. It appears like a human tragedy. The opposition parties- Congress and Mamta Bannerjee TMC - charge that it is the machination of BJP state and Central government to exclude Muslims and non-Assamese living the state for decades. The discrepancy on the large scale in NRC has come to the fore. Even all members of a certain family were not included in NRC. For example; the name of a man, his wife and son has figured in NRC but his daughter has been excluded. What a mishandling committed by the state govt. employees at a local level while preparing the NRC. There must be an honest approach sans any political interest to prepare NRC. BJP and opposition parties blame each other for building their respective vote bank. Opposition parties allege that the NRC in Assam is the handiwork of BJP to polarize Hindu voters in its favour while it alleges them that they are shielding illegal immigrants from Bangladesh only for the sake of protecting their vote bank. NRC must be prepared with the view to entering all genuine and bonafide citizens in it irrespective of their caste, creed, belief and religion and community. At the same time it must be ensured that no illegal immigrants could make to it at any cost. It is correct to say that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have migrated to Assam,West Bengal and other north-eastern states of the country on a large scale. They have in the past posed a serious security problem for India. So it must be ensured that neither the genuine and Bonafide people could be excluded nor the illegal migrants from Bangladesh make them to NRC. The issue of illegal immigrants is not new in Assam. It has been there for decades. As is the habit of Congress government, this issue had been hanging in balance for decades. The illegal immigrants are those who have crossed over to India from across the border after March 25, 1971. No political party whether ruling or opposition should speak in favour of illegal immigrants. The illegal immigrants on large scale have disturbed the demographic balance of the state of Assam. The foreign national issue has already rocked the state in the 1980s. So, the ruling and the opposition must work together without creating any panic among the people that those who have not made to NRC will lose citizenship thereby everything they have earned in the last forty years. They have ample time for recourse to making claim to the citizenship.