Names of 3 AIUDF MPs, Assam House Speaker Missing From NRC, Opposition Cries Foul

New Delhi: Three MPs from Assam’s main opposition party AIUDF, including Dubri's Badruddin Ajmal and Karimganj's Radhey Shyam could not make it to the first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that was released on December 31 midnight.

"My entire family’s name is missing from the first draft. Does this mean that the MPs and MLAs of Assam are also Bangladeshis?" Ajmal asked. His colleague Radhey Shyam added, "I am from the Hindu community and my name still doesn’t feature on the list. Only my wife and son’s names are there."

The first draft of the much awaited National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam has listed 1.9 crore people out of the 3.29 crore applicants as legal Indian citizens in the massive exercise aimed at identifying illegal immigrants in the state that borders Bangladesh.

A top official, however, said that there is no need for anyone to panic and that the rest of the names are in various stages of verification.

The MPs said that 26 members of their families have been ignored in the first draft of NRC, which was released on the December 31. Ajmal told News18 that despite the names of 1.39 crore people from the list, Assam is quiet peaceful at the moment as people are hopeful that their names will feature in the second and third drafts.

Praful Mohanta of AGP also expressed hopes that looking beyond the confusion at this early stage, NRC exercise will ultimately lead to a positive result.

Mohanta told News18, "It is a historic moment. But there are problems. Even the Speaker of the House’s name is missing from the NRC. But this is a draft and the problems will be solved in the future drafts. There is a need for further scrutiny."

Mohanta said that once the entire exercise is completed, the Indian government must negotiate with Bangladesh to take back those who will be declared illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

“In a recent interaction with the Awami league, we were told that so far there is no proposal from India to Bangladesh to take back the illegal migrants. India should now diplomatically push Bangladesh to take back their citizens, be it Muslims or Hindus,” Mohanta told News18.

The AGP has further said that it will oppose any move to grant citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindus by amending the Citizenship Amendment Bill.