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‘Banana republic’: Opposition on Assam cabinet decision to link Aadhaar and NRC
Though it is not officially stated that NRC is linked with Aadhaar card, the Assam government’s move will practically set NRC application as a pre-condition.
The Opposition on Thursday slammed the Assam cabinet's decision to make the National Register of Citizens (NRC) application a pre-condition for obtaining an Aadhaar card, stating the state has turned into a "banana republic" under CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, who hails from Assam, said the NRC has not been notified by the Registrar General of India to date and questioned making it the basis for Aadhaar.
"Secondly, even non-citizens in India get AADHAR cards if they have stayed 182 days in the 12 months before applying. Lastly, unless the government declares a person an illegal migrant, how can they refuse AADHAR? Assam is a banana republic under @himantabiswa & @BJP4India," she posted.
Gaurav Gogoi, who is the Congress’ deputy leader in Lok Sabha, said that the problem of fake beneficiaries is huge in the state.
"Government data itself shows how crores of public funds was wasted in the implementation of PM Kisan," Gogoi said in a post on X.
Sharing a news link of PTI on the Aadhaar-NRC decision by the Assam Cabinet, he said people in the state are paying GST, cess and various other duties.
"...but the entire money is being funnelled into the pockets of BJP party members," Gogoi alleged.
What is the decision by the Assam Government?
The Assam government on Wednesday decided that all applications for the unique identity card will be rejected if the applicant or their family had not applied for the NRC. This is being seen as an effort to link the Aadhaar card with the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
According to Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, the decision was taken because of infiltration attempts by citizens of trouble-hit Bangladesh, PTI reported.
Though it is not officially stated that NRC is linked with Aadhaar card, the Assam government’s move will practically set NRC application as a pre-condition for new applicants to get the unique identity cards.
According to the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) approved by the Cabinet, the state government will verify the submitted documents and return them to UIDAI online within 45 days of receipt.
The final NRC was released on August 31, 2019 by excluding 19,06,657 people. A total of 3,11,21,004 names were included out of 3,30,27,661 applicants.
However, it has not been notified by the Registrar General of India yet, leaving the historic and controversial document without any official validity.
