Voter list revision, NRC no solution to 'demographic invasion' in Assam: CM Himanta Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. (File: PTI)

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that demographic changes in Assam cannot be addressed through legal steps such as a revision of the voter list or a National Register of Citizens and stressed on the need for "indigenous solutions" to tackle the situation.

The remarks come after the Election Commission of India announced a nationwide Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, beginning with poll-bound Bihar. The Indian Express reported that the Assam government reached out to the EC following the announcement and requested that the NRC, which has been in limbo since 2019, be factored in as one of the admissible documents.

The draft Assam NRC, aimed at addressing decades of demographic anxieties in the state by identifying Indian citizens and distinguishing them from illegal immigrants, was published in 2019, drawing criticism from several quarters, including the state government, over inaccuracies in its exclusions as well as inclusions.

The state government, which claims that the draft NRC excludes "indigenous people" while including large numbers of "foreigners", has pressed for sample reverification of the NRC since the publication of the draft.

Sarma, the incumbent CM, has often voiced his criticism of the NRC exercise carried out in Assam. On Tuesday, he reiterated his concerns and said that no NRC or voter list revision could effectively counter the "demographic invasion" of Assam.

Sarma further alleged that Middle and Lower Assam, where Bengali-origin Muslims are concentrated, have been subjected to "demographic invasion" and Upper Assam is under threat of similar changes.

"Demography is a social science concept. It is not a legal concept. If you tell the court that demographic change is happening, the court will say ‘so what’? They are all Indian… This is an invasion on culture, civilisation, tradition," Sarma said, adding that NRC and voter list revision cannot be an answer to this phenomenon.

"If people from Dhing, Lahorighat (places in Central Assam with a large Bengali-Muslim population) try to come to Jorhat, what will the appropriate reply be? The local people will not give them land, the government will not let them settle on government land, and then demography will not be invaded. And our people will work themselves. If these three things are done, demographic change will halt. What will be the need for NRC?” he added.

Sarma further said that the NRC exercise failed because of a lack of mechanism to effectively carry it out in the border districts.

"We have had NRC here. We don't know what will happen here (regarding voter list revision), but there is no mechanism (to identify foreigners) in South Salmara-Mankachar, Hailakandi (districts bordering Bangladesh). Our problems need an Assamese kind of solution, an indigenous solution…. Some anganwadi worker inside a village, some gaon panchayat secretary had the responsibility of making the NRC for their particular village. How can they call their own relatives in the village foreigners?… Assam’s problem cannot be compared to that in any other state; it has to be improvised as we keep battling them," he said, according to The Indian Express.

Sarma further pointed out that NRC cannot be an answer to "demographic invasion" since the immigrants have obtained land patta, names in voter list, Aadhar cards and ration cards.

"If I take one lakh people from Assam to a UP constituency, the UP government cannot deny adding them to the voter list because they are bonafide Indian citizens," he said, citing the example of Uriamghat in Upper Assam’s Golaghat district, which he alleges is seeing Bengali-origin Muslims from Middle Assam settling.