AASU, APW urge Supreme Court to re-examine final draft of NRC

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The All Assam Students'' Union (AASU) and the Assam Public Works (APW) on Monday urged the Supreme Court for re-examination of the states final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which they alleged was "not prepared" according to the top courts directives.

The final draft has turned out to be a document reflecting the "failure" of both the state and central government, and the students'' organisation had appealed to the apex court for re-examination, but we are still waiting the Supreme Court''s directive in this regard", AASU president Dipanka Nath and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said in a statement.

AASU had not rejected the final NRC, but "we were not satisfied with the results and there were flaws in the final document as it was not prepared according to the directives given by the Supreme Court", its leaders said.

They accused both the Congress, during whose rule the process was started in 2014, and the BJP government, of creating hurdles in the process of documenting a "correct" NRC according to the directives.

"The NRC process, which took five years to be completed was conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court, but all political parties, though claiming to support the documenting process, only created hurdles along the way in the interest of their vote-bank politics," the statement said.

As soon as the final NRC was published, the BJP government went on to violate the provisions of the Assam Accord by imposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Nath and Gogoi alleged.

"Imposing the CAA on the people of Assam is a conspiracy to sabotage the NRC," they claimed.

AASU is hopeful that the Supreme Court will allow "re-examination of NRC and till desired results are achieved, we will continue to do fulfil our responsibilities".

Meanwhile, the Assam Public Works, a primary petitioner for the NRC in the top court, said the NRC has become an "absolute zero" due to the "conspiracy of vested interests".

"The NRC in its current form cannot send back a single foreigner but will only lead to making foreigners Indian citizens. In one word, the NRC has boomeranged on the people of Assam," APW President Aabhijeet Sarma told reporters here.

It is with a "heavy heart that we say that the NRC has turned out to be a waste paper and it has become clear that both the state and central government are not interested in ensuring a flawless NRC, he said.

The APW is, however, committed to ensure a correct and fair NRC for the people of Assam, and "for this we have already petitioned the Supreme Court for a re-examination of the final document published last year, as we believe that it is necessary for a strong Assamese society", Sarma added.

The final NRC included 3.12 crore people in the list and excluded over 19 lakh.