By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : Tripura tribal parties press for NRC, similar demand from Mizoram, Nagaland.Even as leaders of Tripura tribal parties press the Centre for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state, various parties in Mizoram and Nagaland too have also started demanding the NRC in their states. Leaders of Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) and Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) during the past two days have met various Central authorities and ministers in Delhi and demanded preparation of the NRC in Tripura on the lines of Assam. Meanwhile, Mizoram’s all powerful NGO, Young Mizo Association (YMA), has raised a similar demand in the Christian-dominated state while the Nagaland unit of Janata Dal (United) has demanded introduction of NRC in the tribal-dominated state. “We have submitted a memorandum to the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India in Delhi Except the Congress, all the local parties in Mizoram are demanding introduction of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the Christian-dominated state which shares border with Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The ruling Mizo National Front (MNF), in its manifesto for the Assembly elections in November last year, had promised that it would initiate the exercise of NRC in the state on the lines of Assam. The MNF is a constituent North East Democratic Alliance, a BJP-floated grouping of non-Congress parties.The MNF pledge came in the wake of several non-governmental organisations in Mizoram demanding an NRC to detect illegal immigrants after Assam published the final draft of the NRC in July last year. The NRC, first published in Assam in 1951, is being updated as per directions of the Supreme Court to segregate Indian citizens living in Assam from those who have illegally entered the state from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971. On May 18, the Mizoram Assembly unanimously passed a bill to create a register of all households in the state. While introducing the Mizoram Maintenance of Household Registers Bill, 2019, Chief Minister Zoramthanga said the bill was necessitated by “the influx of foreigners into Mizoram through its porous borders”.“In many cases the benefits of development and welfare programmes are found eaten away to a large extent by such foreigners,” reads the bill’s statement of objects and reasons, signed by the chief minister. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while speaking on the NRC issue in Parliament last Tuesday, favoured such an exercise across the country. The government would deport illegal immigrants from “every inch of the country’s soil”, Shah said in the House.

Although the Supreme Court of India had instructed the National Register of Citizens’ (NRC) authorities to publish the final list on July 31 without further delay, the Coordinator of NRC, Prateek Hajela said that the complementary list will be published on the said date. The complementary list will be published based on the inclusion of the names after the hearing of claims and objections and the names that have been dropped from the draft list. It was only after publishing of the complementary list that the consolidated list will be published after one month i.e. on August 31. The Centre told the top court on Friday that lakhs of people had been wrongly included in the final draft of the NRC adding that India can’t be refugee capital of the world. Solicitor General (SG) and senior Supreme Court lawyer, Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and Assam Government, pleaded the Supreme Court to extend the July 31 deadline for finalisation of NRC in Assam. Hajela, while replying to the court said that the complementary list will be published on July 31 and they need another one month time to file tune the complementary list and will publish the final list on August 31. The fate of NRC continues to hang in balance as the Supreme Court will hear the matter again on July 22 as centre and state pressed for revision while the State coordinator Prateek Hajela informed that 26% of the total NRC data (80 lakhs) had already been re-verified. For the flood, the publication can be postponed to August 31, Hajela informed the top court. The Centre will give its response on Tuesday (July 23) next.