GUWAHATI, June 9: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said the state government would enforce a 1950 law to identify and evict illegal foreigners, which empowers district commissioners (DCs) to carry out the proceedings.
He also maintained that a Supreme Court order delinking updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) with foreigner identification process will help in intensifying action against illegal migrants.
The final NRC, a list of Indian citizens residing in Assam, was released in 2019 by excluding 19,06,657 people. However, it has not been notified by the Registrar General of India, leaving the controversial document without any official validity.
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Speaking during a special day-long Assembly session, he alleged that the Congress does not value citizenship, as out of four family members of one of its leaders, three are foreigners.
He was alluding to Congress state president Gaurav Gogoi whom the chief minister has been targeting for his alleged Pakistan links through his British wife. Gogoi was seated at the visitors’ gallery of the Assembly during the day.
Replying to issues of detection and deportation of foreigners, Sarma said the state government will implement the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, which allows DCs to declare illegal immigrants and evict them.
He said a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, in a recent ruling on a case of the Citizenship Act, has given “sweeping power” to the state government by mentioning that the 1950 law remains valid.
It implies that the government does not have to go to a tribunal for identifying foreigners and if the DC has prima facie evidence, the illegal resident can be ‘evicted’ or ‘removed’, Sarma said.
He added that people coming in to escape religious persecution are exempted under the Act.
Sarma said another recent Supreme Court ruling that updating NRC and identification of foreigners are not inter-linked has made it clear that the government’s ‘hands and legs are not tied’ with the NRC process and it can go ahead with finding out the illegal residents.
He said the process of securing NRC data, as directed by the apex court, was being done and it will be completed within 8-12 months, after which ‘acceptance/ rejection slips’ to the people can be given.
He, however, added that the state government does not consider the final draft of the NRC as the “final one” as ineligible people have got their names included in it through “various means”.
“Even people declared as foreigners by Foreigners’ Tribunals have their names in NRC,” he claimed, adding that his government had approached the apex court with the plea for re-verification of 20 per cent of names in border districts and 10 per cent in other districts.
He alleged that activists like Harsh Mander had conspired to include foreigners in the NRC and said, “If I would have been the CM then, I would have jailed the likes of him.”
“We have documented all evidence showing how about 2,600 Facebook accounts of Islamabad, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, post on Palestine or Assam only… They don’t welcome Rahul Gandhi but do so for one Assam leader,” he added.
The chief minister said that while the state government has been facing the Supreme Court’s criticism for not expelling identified foreigners, it has been doing so for last two-three months now.
He admitted that a few of these expelled or pushed back people had court cases pending and they were brought back using formal and informal diplomatic channels.
Sarma said over 303 illegal Bangladeshis have been pushed back in the past couple of months and the drive will be intensified, adding that 35 people are ready to be pushed back once flood waters recede.
“There is no way that Pakistani, Bangladeshi fundamentalist elements will be allowed to enter Assam. To save Assam, we have to be more active,” the CM asserted.
“I am an Assamese first, and then the chief minister… We have cleared the path for deportation and the process will continue,” he added.
Sarma said a huge number of illegal Bangladeshis picked from other states have been pushed back by BSF with the Assam government as the facilitator, though he did not mention any figure.
“It is necessary to push back these people so that the message goes that they should not try to come here illegally,” he added.
Responding to AIUDF MLA Rafikul Islam’s caution that foreigner detection should be handled carefully because “citizenship is a most valued asset for any individual,” Sarma doubled down on his criticism of the Congress.
“Rafikul Islam has said citizenship is the most valuable asset, but it may not be so for Congress as they have people in whose family out of four members, three are foreigners,” he said.
Sarma had been claiming that not only has Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi’s wife retained her British citizenship, but their two minor children are also not Indian nationals.
CPI(M) legislator Manoranjan Talukdar and Islam also expressed apprehension that power to DCs to declare foreigners should not be used arbitrarily or on communal lines.
Opposition Congress and AIUDF expressed their dissatisfaction with the chief minister’s reply and demonstrated in the Well of the House, with the Congress also briefly walking out of the House.
The House was adjourned for 30 minutes as AIUDF MLAs were seated on the floor, disrupting proceedings. (PTI)
