Nearly two million people in the Indian state of Assam face statelessness. The state government of northeastern India today published a controversial national register registering a total of 31.1 million people. However, 1.9 million people were not admitted to the National Civil Register (NRC).
Most affected are Muslim immigrants and immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. The government of Assam, where millions of people live in neighboring countries, had decided to register with the civil society last year.
Only residents who have been proven to have arrived before 1971 were admitted. Millions of people who fled to India in Bangladesh before the Revolutionary War were excluded.
Review: Modi wants to strengthen Hindu supremacy
Critics see in the civil register a further attempt by the Hindu-nationalist ruling party BJP of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to strengthen the supremacy of Hindus in India and especially to marginalize the Muslim minority. Also in Assam governs the BJP.
The citizens‘ register in Assam is already a model for the whole country. In January, the Indian House of Commons passed a controversial law that allows naturalization to hundreds of thousands of migrants – only Muslims are excluded.
The law, which has yet to be approved by the House of Lords, grants Hindu, Christian and Sikh citizens from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan Indian citizenship if they have been living in India for at least six years. Muslims, however, are not granted this right.
