Assam: Doubtful Citizenship, Distorted Rights – Fact Finding Report

Citizenship Amendment Bill and the people of Assam

Forward

I as part of the fact-finding team and being associated with its day-to-day work – from field work to preparation of the report – can say with confirmity that Assam is sitting on the tip of a volcano that can erupt if the injustices meted out to Bangla-speaking Muslims and Hindus on the basis of language and religion in the process of updation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) are not checked and stopped in time.

The are complaints that people are not being given a fair chance to defend and prove them as Indian citizen before the Foreigners Tribunal. They are not being served notices properly just because it is sent to their temporary addresses or the places that have been washed away or relocated because of the massive erosin caused by the Brahmaputra river every year but only exist official records.

The concept of „D-Voter‟ is completely illegal and has no place in the Constitution. There can be citizens and non-citizens but not doubtful citizens.

In majority of the cases, we found people being declared foreigners ex-parte. And therefore, they end up languishing in jails in the name of detention camps. We also found that people were declared foreigners but they have not been provided with a copy of the judgement so that they can challenge the verdict in superior courts.

A large number of people while interacting with us said Justice Ujjal Bhuiyan who is heading the division bench of the Gauhati High Court is “partisan”. All cases related to the alleged foreign nationals land in his court only after the Foreigners Tribunal and the roster of the division bench is not being revised. At a time when a crisis is looming large, it is the responsibility of the court to fix the judicial accountibility by paying heed to the allegation being levelled on such a large scale.

With the final draft scheduled to be out by July 30, lakhs of people will be rendered stateless and there is apparantly no plan what is to be done to them. Deporting such a huge number of people appears to be practically impossible. If it happens, it will create a crisis rather an anarchy. Depolyment of additinal security forces is an inditication to the upcoming chaotic situation.

The government, authorities and other stake holders must act before it is too late.

(SR Darapuri) Former Inspector General Uttar Pradesh Police

Read the full report here

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