By TwoCircles.net
Team #UnitedAgainstHate headed by Mr. S.R Darapuri (Ex IG, UP Police) went to Assam to prepare a fact finding on NRC issue. Senior Journalists Amit Sengupta, Tariq Anwar, Manisha Bhalla, Avinash Kumar and Hassnul Banna were also a part of team.
The Fact finding report on Assam -Doubtful citizenship , Distorted Rights reveals that Assam is sitting on the tip of a volcano that can erupt if the injustices meted out to Bangla-speaking Muslims and Hindus on the basis of language and religion in the process of updating National Register of Citizens (NRC) are not checked and stopped in time.
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, first tabled in Parliament on July 15, 2015 was backed by the BJP. The whole of India is governed by the Rule 4 of the citizenship act wherein the staff of the NRC go door to door to verify citizenship documents and testimonies.
But in Assam Rule 4 A is followed under which NRC Seva Kendras are set up in the gram panchayats where residents have to take a form, fill it up and submit with documents to prove their citizenship. Thus the onus is on the common people to prove their citizenship.
The final draft of the bill will be out on July 30. And as per this amendment around 35 lakhs of people will be rendered stateless and there is apparently no plan what is to be done to them. Deporting such a huge number of people appears to be practically impossible. If it happens, it will create a crisis rather, an anarchy. Deployment of additional security forces is an indication to the upcoming chaotic situation. The government, authorities and other stake holders must act before it is too late.
Those who have not been able to prove their citizenship so far have been sent to detention camps. There are six detention camps which are not separate camps but a part of district jail. There are approximately 1,000 people in the detention camps in Tezpur, Silchar, Jorhat, Goalpara, Dibrugarh and Kokrajhar (only for women).
The inmates there have no prison rights and are worse off than prisoners. And their only crime is they don’t have enough papers to prove that they are citizens of India and Assam has been home to them from generations together.
Most affected are allegedly Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims. Presumably, the NRC process is directly having an impact on specifically religious and linguistic minorities in the state.
The Team has noticed many cases of discrimination, Violations of Human Rights, Lack of Judicial accountability. And they have recorded it all in the 18 page report that was released today, 23rd July, Monday in the NSS Club, Hyderabad followed by a press conference which was addressed by S.R Darapuri, Nadeem Khan, Sandeep Pandey(Socialist Party, India), Lubna Sarwath(Political Activist) and team “United Against Hate”.
Read the complete report here:
NRC-Assam-fact-finding-report-UAH
The Team #United against Hate can be reached at: +91 9966561335