New Delhi : At least two junior union ministers have assured a visiting Bangladesh MP that nobody would be deported to his country as a consequence of the massive exercise of the National Register of Citizens (NRCs) to find out illegal immigrants living in the state.
The assurance was given by External Affairs MoS M J Akbar and MoS Home Kiren Rijiju to Syed Nazibul Bashar Maizvandary, MP and Bangladesh Tariqat Federation chairman, who conveyed to them that Bangladesh economy already feeling the burden of 11 lakh Rohingya refugees will not be able to take an additional influx from the Indian borders.
In Guwahati, NRC programme coordinator Prateek Hajela also cleared the government’s stand that “people whose names are not there in NRC will neither be jailed nor will they be deported.”
The NRC coordinator further said that even after the final NRC will be out, people will have the option to appeal against the same. “Even after the final NRC is out people will still have the right to appeal in the Foreigners Tribunal if they are not satisfied with the result of the NRC process,” he said.
He added: “This is a long process, more than three crore people had applied, there are more than 6 crore documents and more than 75,000 issuing authorities. Law realises the fact that the result of such a long process cannot be final in the first attempt.”
Meanwhile, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the coalition partner of BJP in Assam, has put the Modi government on notice for its open attempts to destroy the spirit of the NRC, which the BJP president Amit Shah called only the other day as “the soul of Assam accord.”