Letter to BS: Amid Assam NRC debate, should it be extended to other states?

The recent National Register of Citizens (NRC) survey in Assam has stirred a hornets’ nest and proves the idea that religion must not be mixed with politics. The saga of Islamisation of Assam started way back when a former President of India was minister in the Assam cabinet. It aggravated with the refugee influx in the 1970s. Many are not aware that Indira Gandhi and Mujibur Rahman signed an agreement in February 1972 that refugees who came before March 1971 would not be repatriated. So a few more votes were added on the pseudo-secular platform. 

It is unbelievable that only 4 million have in the first instance been found to be without documents. The fact is, states initially affected by the refugee influx, gave refugees a false identity provided they went out of that state, when the numbers grew beyond tolerable limits. The NRC must, therefore, be extended to other states also. There needs to be an amendment to the Constitution to define a “natural Indian”. A natural Indian is someone whose parents are Indian citizens at the time of his/her birth and who have never held the citizenship of any other country. Only such natural Indians can hold Constitutional posts and employment in the government, public sector undertakings, armed forces etc.

T R Ramaswami  Mumbai

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