Assam’s National Register of Citizens, published last August, was updated following a Supreme Court order in 2013. The court’s decision cam...
Assam’s National Register of Citizens, published last August, was updated following a Supreme Court order in 2013. The court’s decision came in response to a petition filed by a non-governmental organisation called Assam Public Works asking for “illegal migrants” to be struck off the electoral rolls.
However, the demand to update the 1951 NRC in Assam goes back much further. It was first raised by the most influential of all civil society groups in the state, the All Assam Students’ Union, back in 1980. At the time, the students’ union was spearheading a furious anti-foreigner agitation known as the Assam Movement.
The fires of the movement were doused by the signing of the Assam Accord. According to the terms of the accord, those who lived in the state before March 24, 1971, and their descendants could stay in Assam. Those who came after from across the border would be liable to deportation. The cut-off corresponded to the Bangladesh liberation war, which had sparked an exodus from that country.
In the 1990s, the All Assam Students’ Union stepped up the demand for the updating of the NRC – according to the terms of the Assam Accord. In 2005, the Union sat in a tripartite meeting with the...
