Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has claimed that about three-five lakh people will apply for Indian citizenship under the CAA in the state, asserting that the applicants will comprise only those who were excluded from the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC).
He also said that seven lakh Muslims and five lakh Hindu-Bengalis, among others, were left out of the NRC list.
“Many Hindu-Bengalis had come at different points of time and stayed at refugee camps. When they applied for inclusion in NRC, they submitted a stamped paper as proof of having stayed at such camps.
“But, Prateek Hajela (former NRC state coordinator) did not accept the paper. As a result, names of many Hindu-Bengalis were not included in the NRC,” Sarma said in an interview to a local television channel here.
He said that while many among the 5 lakh Hindu-Bengalis who had applied for inclusion in NRC will submit applications under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, many others will take legal recourse.
Applicants excluded from the NRC also include 2 lakh “proper Assamese” like those having the Das (surname), the ‘Koch-Rajbongshi’ (community) and 1.5 lakh Gorkhas, the CM claimed.
“Applications under the CAA will be three-five lakh, with a 10 per cent margin of error. There won’t be any 15 or 18 or 20 lakh or 1.5 crore applicants in Assam. After being in politics for so long, I have that much grip on the state,” the BJP leader asserted.
The Supreme Court-monitored NRC was published on August 31, 2019 and excluded 19 lakh of the 3.4 crore applicants.
The Centre had earlier this month implemented the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, notifying the rules four years after the law was passed by Parliament to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.
The NRC was updated on the basis of the Assam Accord, which sets midnight of March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for granting citizenship to Bangladeshis who had entered the state.
Sarma claimed that so far, no applications under the CAA have been made in the state, while in Gujarat, 12 families applied through the designated portal and were granted citizenship.
“Till the first phase of elections here on April 19, it will be almost 40 days since implementation of the CAA. But, not even 50,000 applications will be registered in Assam (till that time),” the chief minister asserted.
He maintained that the CAA will be a “game changer and a boon” for the BJP.
Earlier, soon after the act was implemented, Sarma had said he will be the first to resign if even one person, who has not applied for NRC in the state, gets citizenship.
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