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Bengalis targeted in NRC update: activists

By: Rahul Karmakar

Say authorities coming up with new rules and officials taking decisions different from those on paper

As the deadline for the final draft of the Supreme Court-monitored National Register of Citizens (NRC) nears, minority organisations have pointed out anomalies in the exercise that appears to be aimed at Bengali Hindus and Muslims.
“The NRC authorities are coming up with new rules, and officials on the ground are taking decisions that are different from what is on paper,” Azizur Rahman, convener of the Coordination Committee of Minority Organisations, Assam, said.
The committee represents 23 minority groups.
“Since the exercise is being monitored by the Supreme Court, no one can intervene. But the Assam government came out with new rules such as the one on May 2 — making siblings of those marked foreigners ineligible for NRC updating. Such rules, if at all, should have been made before the exercise was undertaken. The complications are deliberate, aimed at harassing Bengali Hindus and Muslims,” Aminul Islam, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) general secretary, said. On Friday, the Gauhati High Court dismissed a petition against the May 2 order on siblings of “declared foreigners”.
Dharmananda Deb of the Silchar-based Hindu Legal Cell said a slew of orders that had made the exercise for the final draft complicated were aimed at Bengali Hindus. “We were the main targets in 1979 when the D-voter (doubtful voter) issue cropped up. Almost 90% of D-voters and those in detention camps are Bengali Hindus,” he said.
“Bengali Hindus are likely to suffer this time too. Maybe, they will come up with D-NRC to keep harassing the common people,” Mr. Deb said. About 28% people in Assam are Bengali-speakers, a majority of them in Barak Valley where having the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed by Parliament before publication of the final NRC draft matters most. “If enacted after NRC, the Bill will have no meaning,” Mr. Deb said.
“The Bill is not acceptable because it will endanger the existence of the indigenous people, already burdened with waves of immigrants. It is against the secularism that the Constitution upholds and violates the provision of the 1985 Assam Accord that prescribes March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for illegal migrants,” Samujjal Bhattacharyya, advisor of All Assam Students’ Union, said.
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Courtesy: The Hindu
For original write-up refer to the following llink
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/bengalis-targeted-in-nrc-update-activists/article24249143.ece
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