Candidate calls all parties liars over ‘foreigners’ issue

Guwahati: A day after the home ministry submitted before the Supreme Court that around 70,000 ‘declared’ foreigners in Assam are traceless, independent candidate fighting from the Guwahati Lok Sabha seat, Upamanyu Hazarika called all political parties ‘liars’.
“It is a matter of great shame that 70,000 declared foreigners have not only gone missing but many of them also found their way into the National Register of Citizens (NRC) as well as the electoral rolls. It is disgraceful that all major political parties, which are taking up the cause of foreigners, has done nothing,” said Hazarika, who is also an SC lawyer.

On Monday, the home ministry in an affidavit filed in the apex court said out of 91,609 persons declared by various foreigners tribunals in Assam as illegal as of March 2018, at least 72,486 are ‘absconding’.

Hazarika, who has been crusading against illegal encroachments in Assam, accused both BJP and Congress of betraying the people of the state. “There are multiple instances of declared foreigners finding their way into electoral rolls while genuine citizens have been left out. Moreover, in spite of the apex court directing a sample re-verification of 10% NRC draft inclusions, the government did nothing. Rather, they are seeking a relaxation of norms to include all those left out. They have made the entire NRC process a farce,” alleged the Independent candidate. He said that while BJP is in favour of Hindu migrants, Congress has been using the illegal settlers as ‘vote banks’.

Hazarika, who has taken the NRC re-verification and land reservation law for the indigenous people of the state as his prime poll agenda, urged the people of the state to translate their resentments into votes and uproot those who betrayed them.

“There should be an independent committee headed by a retired SC judge and the re-verification of NRC should be carried out by officials from other states as many local ground-level officials trace their origins to Bangladesh,” he said.