The former Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, said on Thursday that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) State Coordinator, Prateek Hajela, and the Registrar General of India (RGI), Sailesh, getting a rap on the knuckles by the Supreme Court for speaking to the media proves right the Congress’ claim on “faulty” NRC final draft in Assam.
A report appearing in the The Times of India quoted Gogoi as saying on Thursday, “The stand of the Supreme Court rebuking the Registrar General of India and NRC State Coordinator and directing them to concentrate on preparing an ‘error-free citizen’s register’ vindicates our stand on the issue.”
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The report further stated that Gogoi had alleged that the officials were “under pressure” from the RSS and BJP. Gogoi claimed that the apex court had doubts about the integrity of the NRC authorities. Gogoi also accused the BJP of giving importance to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, and not to the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“We have been saying that the draft NRC is full of errors and the SC’s directive to the officials that they have the responsibility to prepare a correct NRC, proves our claim,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Earlier, the former Assam CM had claimed just after the final draft NRC was published that the citizen’s list was “Congress baby” and was set in motion by his Government to identify “foreigners” who had entered Assam “illegally”.
The Congress party had also argued that “80 per cent” of the process was completed by the Congress government under its veteran leader Tarun Gogoi and released data to argue that more foreigners were deported from Assam under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government.