NRC: Final list may not be the end of the matter

The National Register of Citizens is at last ready, on the last day of the one-month extension of deadline set by the Supreme Court, under whose supervision the exercise of separating real Indians from “illegals” was conducted.

It has been a gigantic effort that stretched five years, but the result is unlikely to elicit any applause.

Some 19 lakh residents of Assam, mostly Muslim of course, haven’t made the cut. The excluded Hindus will probably be saved in the end.

The BJP, the state’s ruling party, always thought of Bangladeshi Hindus as “refugees”, but Muslims were “infiltrators”, or “termites”, as Amit Shah called them when he was party president but not home minister. Besides, the amended Citizenship Act — intended to preclude Muslims from citizenship — is in the works.

The main grouse of Assam BJP leaders is that 19 lakh exclusions from the NRC is too few. They think there should be many more, and are perhaps throwing their energies into obtaining the Supreme Court’s permission for a re-verification regime, especially in districts bordering Bangladesh, where Muslims live in large numbers, so that more may be caught in the net.

Maybe such an objective can be achieved through the legislation route, that has been hinted at loosely. It is to be seen if the Centre is okay with this. For tactical reasons, so that the world outside India — particularly key Islamic countries — is not roiled right on the heels of the recent regrettable goings-on in Kashmir, since in Assam too it is the Muslim community that is under pressure.

May be it is this factor that has largely caused the big drop from 41 lakh illegal immigrants in the draft NRC of 2018 to the present 19 lakh, not that this figure is a laughing matter. The final list too seems ridden with holes. In the same family, some siblings are in, some are out. Logic is a casualty.

Now the excluded ones can approach the hastily set up Foreigners’ Tribunals to plead their case. It might work for some, but not if these are ideologically and politically loaded against some.

The BJP says the excluded category is even smaller than it appears as it includes nearly four lakhs of the original 41 lakhs who were out of the draft list of last year and hadn’t bothered appealing, for reasons that aren’t clear. In effect, then, those kept out through the verification process —whatever its worth — threw up only 15 lakh doubtful cases. If the Hindus among them are rescued by the BJP, and some Muslims too for the sake of balance, the final figures could be a lot less. The ideological community will be unhappy. Years of campaigning is at risk of being infructuous. In Assam, nativist groups too will remain angry. Let’s see which way the Supreme Court swings.