The All Assam Bengali Youth Students’ Federation (ABBYSF) has pressed the panic button.
The students’ body has alleged that Bengali Hindus in Assam are being “hounded” in the name of NRC ‘claims and objections’ and the D-voter issue.
Addressing a press conference at the ABBYSF office at Tangla in Udalguri district on Wednesday, the students’ body president, Kamal Choudhury, stated, “Certain people with vested interests are raising false objections against the linguistic minority people whose names have appeared in the final draft NRC.”
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Choudhury was referring to the arrest of few declared foreigners from various parts of Baksa and Udalguri district of Assam on Wednesday.
“These poor Hindu Bengali citizens have been arrested on the basis of ex parte judgements (read they have been declared foreigners by tribunals) despite having enough citizenship proof,” he further lamented.
Choudhury said that the arrested people are “living a hand to mouth existence and cannot afford legal expenses”.
He warned that if such harassment of Hindu Bengalis continues, the ABBYSF will be forced to hit the streets against this “hypocrisy” of the government.
The NRC final draft published on July 30, 2018, had excluded 40.07 lakh of the 3.29 crore applicants. A deadline of December 31, 2018, was given to applicants whose names have been left out from the final draft NRC.
People who suspected that foreigners also found their way into the citizens’ register was also allowed to file objections within December 31, 2018.
“It is very unfortunate that the Hindu Bengalis in Assam – who are already battling with poverty – are being harassed in the name of ‘claims and objections’ by certain people with vested interests,” Choudhury lamented.
He said that those who had filed objections are presently not coming forward for NRC hearing thus raising question marks on the credibility and authenticity of such objections.
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“It is crystal clear that these people had raised objections just to derail the ongoing NRC update exercise,” he stated.
The Bengali Hindus have embraced the culture and language of Assam, he said, and today they are being “treated in a shabby manner in the name of NRC and D-voters issue”.
NRC authorities informed that about 2.5 lakh objections have been filed on December 31, 2018, the last day of filing claims and objections.