(This is a reprint from NewsBred).
Centre has rushed
tens of thousands of paramilitary forces to
The first draft had embraced 1.9 crores out of 3.9 crores as legal citizens of the state. The second draft could take care of a few lakhs more. But what's certain is that there would be many lakhs more who won't have the papers to meet the cut-off date of March 24, 1971.
A majority
of them are persecuted Hindus fleeing
Most have
moved directly across the vast 272 km border which
Census
figures over the years show that
NRC is hardly a comfort to (a) an illegal Hindu migrant family who fears being sent back to Bangladesh where it fled religious persecution in the first place; or (b) Muslim migrants who in one stroke could find two of its generation stateless refugees; or (c) even indigenous Assamese who know NRC would make no difference to ground reality and that these illegal immigrants would multiply manifold if the Citizenship Bill 2016 is passed into an Act.
All things
point to nothing materially changing for illegal migrants post release of
second draft of NRC.
It's worth remembering that the present exercise of NRC is at the behest of Supreme Court. The Centre has got nothing to do with it. BJP can't abandon illegal Hindu migrants--which would be a stick they would be beaten with-- nor antagonize local Assamese who have given vote in their favour in 2016 assembly elections.
This makes
nobody happy. Certainly not people. But Congress is sure to fish in troubled
waters which is largely a making of their own indifference, if not mischief. Congress
has ruled
Sooner than later though, illegal migrants must be taken off the election rolls; ways must be found to give refuge to millions of fleeing Hindus (and other Indic minority sects) from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh with full citizenship status (without worrying about Rohingyas or Human Right Activists--for Hindus have only India to turn to while Muslims and Christians have dozens of own doors to knock around the world); and illegal migrants legally committed not to indulge in political or religious subversive acts.