By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : Three-time former Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, on Tuesday, lashed out against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other concerned parties, alleging that many ‘genuine’ citizens have been omitted from the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Addressing the press here today, Gogoi expressed his concern after the publication of the final draft of the NRC which left out over nineteen lakh people.  Assamese people, Bengali people, gorkhas, all have suffered after the publication of the NRC, Gogoi said. After the publication of the NRC, we have seen the state being engulfed by protests. People from all communities, including tribals, have expressed their sorrow. Gogoi said that the grief over the NRC proves the negligence of the Central as well as State Governments. “Confusion and uncertain prevails among many genuine citizens of Assam”, he said.

“They will now have to go to the foreigners’ tribunals, but why should they?”, he asked. Gogoi also asked if the people who are responsible for the chaos and confusion, will be subjected to punishments? He further questioned why Amit Shah is quiet now, as he had earlier announced that all the foreigners would be deported. “How can this be scientific, how can science make such blatant mistakes?”, Tarun Gogoi queried. Taking digs at the Assam BJP unit for condemning the NRC, he asked how the BJP can claim that many indigenous people have been left out, whereas Amit Shah himself had claimed that the 40 lakh people named in the first draft were foreigners.AS officer Prateek Hajela was appointed as the NRC state coordinator by Gogoi in 2013 and the former chief minister often claims credit for initiating the updation work during his tenure.

“The BJP is also not happy with the published NRC and this shows how miserably they have failed. It is the state government which has the machinery to detect and decide who are foreigners with the help of its police, intelligence and administrative officers”, he said. The senior Congress leader said NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma’s was “trying to hoodwink people” with his statement that Supreme Court should allow at least 20 per cent re-verification of the names in border districts and 10 per cent in the rest of Assam as requested by the state and central governments earlier. The AASU, too, is not happy with the NRC and if they who had spearheaded the Assam agitation to drive out foreigners are dissatisfied, then “what is the point in having the NRC”? he asked. “The Final NRC instead of solving the problem of illegal foreigners will now create more problems”, he said. Gogoi said that he had doubts about the NRC becoming a “waste-paper and ultimately this what it has turned out to be”.