NRC complainants skip hearings, minority groups seek action for harassment

Minority groups claim that a majority of the objections or complaints were meant to harass genuine Indian citizens, and failure to attend the hearings shows that they were false and fabricated.

Officials involved in updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) had prepared to hear from Monday onwards complaints against inclusions of names in the final draft published on July 30, 2018, but many complainants failed to turn out in various places across the state.

People check their names in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list during a hearing at a Seva Kendra, in Guwahati, Tuesday, May 07, 2019. (PTI)

Organisations representing minority groups have claimed that a majority of these objections or complaints were meant to harass genuine Indian citizens, and failure to attend the hearings shows that they were false and fabricated.

More than 2,00,000 complaints were filed after the complete draft came out which had over 28.9 million names and excluded over 4 million names. The Supreme Court which is monitoring the process has set July 31 as the deadline for publishing the complete list.

“It has been two days, none of the persons who have filed objections have turned up in my circle,” said an official closely involved in the process in Barkhetri in Nalbari district on condition of anonymity. “More than 150 hearing have been decided ex parte on the first day,” he said. Barkhetri has more than 7,000 such complaints against inclusion.

In Dhing circle of Nagaon district in central Assam, no complainant turned up on the first two days, according to Mrinal Bora, the circle officer. This circle, too, has over 7000 complaints against inclusion in NRC draft.

In Barpeta, a Muslim majority district in lower Assam, where more than 49,000 complaints were filed, Pulak Patgiri, district in-charge of NRC said the NRC Seva Kendra was yet to see even one complainant turn up for the hearing.

According to several officials involved in the process, a majority of these complaints had similar text. After the complete draft of NRC was published several groups had attacked the veracity of the inclusions and claimed that several illegal immigrants had made to the draft while genuine Indian citizens were left out.

In some cases, persons in whose names these complaints were filed claimed they were false. In Dhing, according to Bora, one Jatin Chandra Nath, a local Asom Gana Parishad worker wrote to the district registrar of NRC requesting him to withdraw complaints in his name since he did not file them.

Bora said if the complainants do not turn up it will be their loss. “The persons against those they have complained that they already gone through multiple verification processes. They obviously have an advantage if the complainant does not turn up and prove their inclusion is wrong,” he said.

In Kokrajhar district, one Mondal Musahary wrote to the district NRC official on May 2, claiming that some members of the All Bodo Students Union have taken his signature on printed forms and used it to submit objections against bonafide Indian citizens. In the letter, he requested to withdraw 12 such complaints. “I wrote the letter withdrawing complaint. I am being threatened, I do not want to talk,” Musahary said when asked for details.

“Only a few hundred objections were filed till a day before the closing date (December 31, 2018) and more than 2,00,000 were filed on the last day,” Brahmaputra Valley civil society, a pressure group said in a memorandum to NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela on Monday. The group claimed some organizations have forcefully obtained signature of objector and under the Citizenship Act and rules responsibility of establishing ground of objections lies on the objectors.

Azizur Rehman, advisor of the All Assam Minority Students Union demanded that action should be taken against those who have filed false and fabricated complaints. “We have no problem with the genuine complaints. But a majority of them seem to be false and fabricated with an intention to harass people. They should be dealt with under the Citizenship Act,” he said even as he claimed that organisations like All Assam Students Union and others were behind these false complaints.

“In cases where objectors do not turn up, the complaints should be rejected,” he said.

Sudip Chanda, secretary of the All Assam Students Union’s unit in Bijni in Chirang district, who filed over 100 such complaints and withdrew over 20 later, said time and the date of the hearings overlapped with each other making it impossible to attend all of them.

Samujjal Bhattacharya, chief adviser, AASU accepted there were problems with some complaints but rejected claims that the organisation was involved in filing false objections. “We extended support to those over 36 lakh who filed claims. We also cooperated with the ones who wanted to file objections. We are now noticing that some complaints have been filed against genuine Indian citizens, we are going to support them, too. We want a illegal Bangladeshi free, correct NRC,” he said.

Prateek Hajela did not respond to requests for a comment.