National Register Of Citizens

Table of Contents

TWO GREAT DEMOCRACIES FACING SAME PROBLEM – ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

BASICS

NOTES

• Compared to the area of the North East its population has apparently increased abnormally from the beginning of the last century. The population of North East was only about 44 Lakhs when the population of the then India of 1901 was more than 29 crore.

• Assam is the only state in the country that has an NRC. The first NRC was prepared in 1951 following the first wave of immigrants from the then East Pakistan.
• Illegal immigration was a big issue even in those days in Assam. • The NRC was prepared under the purview of the Foreigners Act of 1946.

NOTES

• Assam Accord was signed between the Centre and state government in 1985 that promised identification and deportation of illegal immigrants
. • Some of the key demands were – All those foreigners who had entered Assam between 1951 and 1961 were to be given full citizenship, including the right to vote.
• Those who had done so after 1971 were to be deported; the entrants between 1961 and 1971 were to be denied voting rights for ten years but would enjoy all other rights of citizenship.

NOTES

•In 2005, the Manmohan Singh government announced that the NRC would be updated.
•Over the next ten years, the Congress government of Assam under Tarun Gogoi practically sat over the matter.

NOTES

Ethnic clashes broke out between Bodos and Bengali Muslims in Bodoland Territorial Area Districts in 2012. More than 70 people died and a bunch of pleas reached the Supreme Court thereafter.

NATIONAL REGISTER OF CITIZENS

• Of 3.29 crore people who had applied for their names to be included, 2.89 crore have made it to the revised citizen’s list.
• The rest face the prospect of being declared illegal and sent out unless they can satisfy the doubts of the authorities.
• It is not clear whether these 40 lakh will be The register counts only those as Assam citizens who can prove that they were living in the state on or before March 21, 1971.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

The Assam government released the second and final draft of the state’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30, 2018. The list incorporates names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. The descendants of those who can prove citizenship till March 24, 1971, will also be considered Indian citizens. So will those who arrived between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971, and registered themselves with the Foreigners Registration Regional Officer.

THE CITIZENSHIP (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2016

• With The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, the government plans to change the definition of illegal migrants. The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016, seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to provide citizenship to illegal migrants, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who are of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian extraction.
• However, the Act doesn’t have a provision for Muslim sects like Shias and Ahmediyas who also face persecution in Pakistan.
• The Bill also seeks to reduce the requirement of 11 years of continuous stay in the country to six years to obtain citizenship