Out of 19,06,657 names excluded from the final NRC in Assam, a substantial number is that of Gorkhas who are bonafide citizens of India, claims Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha (BGP). The BGP however, feels that Gorkhas of Assam have been able to reduce the number of exclusions after repeated assertion with appropriate authority time and again.
BGP, with support from civil society organisations of Assam, has made itself party in the case before the Supreme Court with respect to inclusion of bonafide Indian Gorkhas.
Nityananda Upadhyay, president of Assam state committee BGP said, “Gorkhas covered a lot of grounds with numbers of exclusion in the final list, however we are waiting for data to reach us in 2-3 days. As on date, the rejected is expected to be more than 1 lakh individuals in the final list. NRC update was a cherished dream of Assam since the time of historic Assam Accord. It is time to realise that we are identifying genuine Indian citizen based on documents so inclusions are done legally after multi layered verification but numbers of foreigners traced after Foreigners Tribunal cases will not meet the expected lines that the government narrated. As a whole the NRC is not in the expected lines for the people of Assam.”
Speaking to this correspondent, Nanda Kirati Dewan, national secretary (youth affairs) of BGP said, “Gorkhas showed patience throughout the upgrade process and today we would like to state with respect to NRC results released today has given a ray of hope that if asserted properly bonafide Indian citizen won’t be left out as the numbers of exclusion from final list and additional exclusion has come down however names rejected this times are mostly D voters Gorkhas which constitute around 20,000 D voter cases and few surname mismatch. As such reject numbers will be more than 1 lakhs figure which can be challenged in FT.”
Dewan further said that for left out cases BGP will engage legal and paralegal community members who have been trained to fight FT cases with proper assertion with a common approach.
President of Assam Nepali Sahitya Sabha Durga Khatiwada’s name along with that of his three children have been included but sadly granddaughter of freedom fighter and founding member of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee, Chabilal Upadhyay Manju Devi’s name has been left out along with that of her two children despite several presentations that her ‘D’ is marked arbitrarily without any case reference in FT or with border police, they said.
