by Nava Thakuri
Even though a thorough (read 100%) re-verification of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam in northeast India becomes necessary before its endorsement by the Registrar General of India (RGI), several state-based organizations and civil society groups start demanding for implantation of the NRC Assam with no verification. After the verdict of the Supreme Court of India upholding the constitutional validity of Clause 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (which endorsed the cut-off date for granting Indian citizenship in Assam at 25 March 1971), their voices got amplified. But the conscious citizens continue questioning if the implementation becomes so urgent even if it’s not properly re-verified regarding the inclusion of millions of illegal migrants (read East Pakistani/Bangladeshi nationals) in the final NRC draft, which was published at midnight of 31 August 2019.
The recent push by an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 forum for the finalization of the NRC supplementary list needs to be discussed. The forum argued that the final draft was submitted to the RGI in 2019 itself, but it’s yet to be published. So there is no reason to keep the updated NRC in cold storage, and hence, the RGI should publish the updated NRC of 1951 for Assam (that kept over 19.06 lakh applicants out of the list) without further delay. The forum also claimed that all sections of the population in Assam would be happy except those politically driven to oppose it. But it may be noteworthy that the Supreme Court, on a direction on 13 August 2019, advocated for an appropriate security arrangement for NRC data before submitting it to both the governments in New Delhi and Dispur as well as the RGI, which has not yet materialized.
Moreover, the NRC updating process had embraced corruption and malpractices as detected by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, where the highest national audit body came out with the revelation that a scam of Rs 260 crore took place during the NRC updating process. The CAG even recommended penal actions against the former State NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela and Wipro Limited, which functioned as the system integrator in the process. Hajela himself released the NRC draft at midnight on 31 August after preparing it under the monitoring of the Supreme Court. But serious allegations were framed by Hajela’s immediate successor, Hitesh Devsarma, that tampered software was used in the process to incorporate illegal migrants’ names in the NRC in return for a huge volume of foreign money. It was also alleged that 6,000 temporary workers who functioned as data entry operators are yet to get their full salaries. Wipro Limited received an average of Rs 14,500 per DEO every month from the NRC authority; it released only around Rs 5,500 per month (an amount below the legal minimum wage). The total volume of siphoned money is estimated to be over Rs 100 crore, which remains in the pockets of Wipro Limited or its subcontract Integrated System & Services to date.
The findings of CAG cannot be overlooked, and hence, all concerned individuals, including some Guwahati-based television journalists who shamelessly lobbied to accept the NRC draft without any verification (definitely in return for personal gains), need to be made accountable under the law. Several individuals made it public through their social media posts that at least three television editors were involved in the corrupt practice during the NRC updating process. Out of them one, a regular talk show host in a satellite news channel, even published a book lavishly praising Hajela and his work as unparalleled. The other two editors dedicated multiple news based television shows insisting that the Assam NRC is lawless and it needs no re-verification. For weeks, the social media users scolded those concerned editor-journalists named and shamed for their corrupt and irresponsible mindsets. But they remain silent as if they had gone into hibernation and their silence over the allegations is yet to be broken.
Meanwhile, many nationalist groups,, including the Patriotic People’s Front Assam, demanded a high-level probe into the matter as the whole exercise was reportedly monitored by the apex court of the country. The PPFA also urged both the governments in New Delhi and Dispur to take decisive steps in identifying those fraudulent activities for the sake of national security and the protection of indigenous communities in the region. However, the responsible authorities continue to be drowsy in regard to those corrupt individuals. Even most of the local media outlets are still shy about discussing financial malpractices (reasons best known to them only). Hence, a high-level probe into the matter becomes the need of the hour to book the culprits who dared to make money in the expense of national security as well as the existence of Indigenous communities in the region.
