Kin of ex-Prez, BJP MLA, wife of Dy Speaker missing in NRC

The draft NRC does not include the names of family members of former President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, BJP MLA Rama Kanta Dewri, and wife of the Deputy Speaker of the Assam Assembly. It also excludes the name of an MLA of an Opposition party.  Ironically, chief of anti-talk faction of Ulfa Paresh Baruah and his former aide Anup Chetia have been listed in the NRC. 

Unfazed at missing out of the list, the BJP MLA said he is not worried as he is “son-of-the soil”. “I didn’t apply as I didn’t feel the need to prove my citizenship,” Dewri said.

Similarly, the name of Archana Paul, wife of Deputy Speaker of Assam and sitting MLA from Silchar Dilip Kumar Paul, could not make it to the final draft of the NRC.

The name of Ananta Kumar Malo, a legislator of the Opposition All India United Democratic Front also did not figure in the list.

The exclusion of the names of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed’s family members has created major controversy.

“We have failed to establish the linkage of our family members with Late Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed through legacy data and hence our names did not appear in the NRC,” said Jiauddin Ali Ahmed, son of Ahtowaruddin Ali Ahmed, youngest brother of former Indian President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed.

Although Ahtowaruddin Ahmed had left Assam ages back with one of his sons and settled in Delhi, his youngest son Jiauddin has been living at Kolomoni village near Rangia, a small town in Assam’s Kamrup Rural district.

“The names of my father Ahtorawuddin Ahmed, myself, my wife Akija Begum, and two of my sons Habib Ali and Wajed Ali did not figure in the NRC. We have applied properly to get the legacy data of former president, late Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. However, we failed to get his legacy data and hence failed to enlist our names into the NRC,” said Jiauddin Ahmed.