GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma slammed his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee for allegedly attempting to instil fear in the minds of Bengali people by talking about the National Register of Citizens (NRC) ahead of the Assembly elections.
Sarma termed Banerjee’s concerns over NRC as unwarranted. "Suddenly, she says she is not going to obey NRC. Who has asked her to obey NRC. Where is the NRC? Nobody has ordered any NRC," the Assam chief minister told the media in Guwahati.
"This is her tactic to instil fear in the minds of Bengali people and get their votes. In last five years, she has not talked anything about NRC. Now, she is talking about all these things as the elections are approaching," Sarma said.
West Bengal and Assam will go to polls early next year. Earlier, Banerjee had expressed "shock" over an "NRC" notice issued to one Uttam Kumar Brajabasi, "resident of Dinhata in Cooch Behar, West Bengal for 50 years," by a foreigners’ tribunal in Assam.
However, Sarma stated that "Brajabasi was a citizen of Assam who had temporarily gone to Bengal." He also said that the notice issued to the man was a "judicial process."
Meanwhile, Sarma clarified that the Assam government had not taken any "special decision" to drop the cases of non-Muslim illegal migrants, who entered India before 2015, from the foreigners’ tribunals.
He said the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) provides security and protection to such people. "That is the law. The case is in the Supreme Court. Unless the Supreme Court strikes it down, that is the law of the land," Sarma said.
He said the state cabinet had earlier decided on dropping the cases of Koch-Rajbanshi and Gorkha people from the foreigners’ tribunals.
"CAA gives security to others (non-Muslims) who came from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan (till December 31, 2014). The state government has nothing to do additionally for them," Sarma further stated.
According to official records, eight people in Assam applied for Indian citizenship under CAA till July 15, 2025 and only two appeared for an interview.
The 1951 NRC in Assam was updated under the direct monitoring of the Supreme Court. Over 19.06 lakh of the 3.3 crore applicants were left out of its complete draft.