Draft NRC 'defective', most of excluded 40 lakh Indians: Gogoi

Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today termed the complete draft of the NRC as "defective" and claimed that most of the over 40 lakh people excluded in the list are Indian citizens.

The Congress in Assam has never won polls on the votes of Bangladeshi people, Gogoi said, asserting both he and the present chief minister have won elections held on the basis of the same voters' list.

The senior Congress leader admitted that illegal Bangladeshi people are residing in Assam, but said their number is much less than the 40 lakh figure mentioned in the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

"This is not a full proof NRC. It has leakages. It is defective. Most of these 40 lakh people are Indian citizens," he said a day after release of the document that excluded over 40 lakh applicants.

"The government should provide legal aid to these excluded people. From the Congress party, we are going to help them in every possible way. It is not correct to consider these people as foreigners," Gogoi said.

He said many people declared as foreigners by the Supreme Court have been included while names of some people living in detention camps for foreigners featured in the list.

He questioned the state government's stand of "not" treating anyone as foreigner during campaigning for 2014 Lok Sabha polls and 2016 assembly elections though the BJP had claimed presence of huge number of Bangladeshis in Assam
Asked about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's statement that Indian citizens have become refugees in their own land, Gogoi said, "Mamata is doing politics. Let her do it in Bengal."