15, Sep 2018 | Zeeshan Javed

National Citizens Register is a politics of division which putting states, communities and classes against each other, human rights activist and social worker Teesta Setalvad said in Kolkata on Saturday.

She also said that her organisation Citizens for Justice and Peace will provide legal aid to those people in Assam whose names have been left out of the final draft of the NRC published in July. The final list will be published only after resolving the claims and objections and making necessary corrections to misspelled names in the final draft NRC.

“The NRC was an issue in Assam but now it is being used to make the states clash with each other, pitting lingual communities against each other and creating fissures between different castes. The states like West Bengal, Meghalaya and others should be very careful. A frenzy is being whipped up in these places to disturb the peace and create unrest,” Teesta said in a programme organised by a human rights organisation in the city.

BJP leaders in Bengal have on many occasions said that a citizenship exercise will be undertaken in Bengal when they come to power.

“NRC is being used to subvert human rights in Assam. There are laid down guidelines and standard operating procedures to carry out this exercise but none of it is being followed. We have to ask if this exercise is being carried out within the ambit of the constitution,” said Teesta.

The NRC in Assam, the final draft of which was published in July, has left out close to 40 lakh people. There was a longstanding demand in the north eastern state to “identify illegal immigrants and deter further influx.” The home ministry has said that the final list will be published in December.

“There is no need to rush with the publication of the final list. People whose names have been left out should get a fair opportunity to present their case. How can the exercise which needs more than three years be completed in three months? This is subversion of human rights,” said Teesta.

The complete original article may be read here.