Assam: Excluded from NRC, Hindu refugees stuck between protests and tribunals

GUWAHATI: The fate of thousands of NRC-excluded Hindu refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan is hanging in the balance in Assam, with a majority of them caught between a long delay in filing their citizenship claims in the foreigners' tribunals on one hand, and the just-started legal battle on the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on the other.
Though the BJP-led government has said the CAA will largely benefit refugee families, who are struggling to prove their identity, including those who entered Assam before the March 25, 1971 cut-off-date endorsed in the 1985 Assam Accord, the NRC excludees from the refugee families are not sure for how long they will have to wait for implementation of the citizenship Act, since the matter is sub judice before the Supreme Court.
After publication of the final NRC on August 31, neither have they received any paper from the NRC office, so that they can approach the foreigner's tribunals to claim their Indian citizenship after staying in Assam since before 1971, nor do they see an end to the agitation against CAA.
"We feel that the NRC authority should start issuing the necessary documents with which the NRC excludees from the refugee families can approach the foreigners tribunals. It has been quite a while since the publication of the final NRC. Our refugee families, who were given shelter in Assam during 1960s, after they fled East Pakistan, are the worst sufferers of this delay. There are thousands of members from these refugee families who are out of the final NRC, despite possessing the refugee documents mostly issued between 1964 and 1968. This was the period when Muslim fundamentalists wreaked havoc on minorities in East Pakistan and our ancestors had to enter India," said Noni Das, one of the active members of the refugee families at Mornoi in lower Assam's Goalpara district.
"The refugees from East Pakistan stand apart from other NRC excludees, who want CAA to get Indian citizenship. Since the refugees from East Pakistan came to Assam prior to 1971, they should be enrolled in the updated NRC as Indian citizens," said Das.
Nearly 5,000 people from such refugee families settled in Choudhurypara village near Chhaygaon in adjacent Kamrup district - mostly belonging to the Koch-Rajbongshi, Hajong and Garo communities - had arrived in Assam between 1964 and 1968 after facing religious persecution. They were allowed to live in a refugee camp (the Bamunigaon Permanent Liability Home) for a few years before the state government allotted them land in Choudhurypara next door. But, about 90% of them remain excluded from the NRC and don't know when they will be able to move the foreigners tribunals.
Newly appointed NRC state coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma said the NRC authority is in the process of issuing the rejection slips, with which those excluded will be able to move the foreigners' tribunals to claim citizenship. "The rejection slips will feature names of NRC excludees and the reason for their exclusion. I have joined only recently. The rejection slips will be issued now," he said.