�Illegal citizens have distorted the ideological concept about citizenship�

GUWAHATI, April 7 - �In Assam, different people used to live where there is always a suspicion over who is a citizen and who is not,� said Dr Anupama Roy while delivering the Golap Borbora Memorial Lecture organised by the College Students Welfare Committee (CSWC) in collaboration with the Centre for South Asian Studies of Gauhati University here today.

Dr Roy, a teacher at the Centre for Political Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), delivered the lecture on the topic of �Citizen/Outsider: Law, Citizenship and Belongings�.

Analysing the definition of citizenship, Dr Roy asserted that though the idea of citizenship by birth is constant, the category of illegal citizens has distorted the ideological conception about citizenship.

Commenting on NRC, she stated that in Assam, a very different procedure has been implemented by the officials concerned. In other parts of the country, officials used to carry out a house to house survey to register citizens, but in Assam, a person has to apply to prove his citizenship with all required documents. She marked the procedure efficient, despite different consensus among different people.

Moreover, Dr Roy touched upon different dimensions of the citizenship issue in Assam as it has unfolded over the years. She pointed out the way in which the issue of citizenship in Assam has got a transitional character with regard to Southeast Asia and also brought out the solutions and challenges posed by factors like the NRC and the CAB.

Presiding over the programme, Gauhati University registrar Dr Nanigopal Mahanta said, �Golap Borbora had an inclusive approach in politics. As a chief minister, he tried to address issues related to agriculture, land, students, etc.�

As part of the programme, the CWSC-Golap Borbora Scholarship Award 2019 was conferred to Sanjana Das, a student of B Borooah College.

Presenting the award, former cop Hiranya Bhattacharya, who had carried out an investigation in 1979 on electoral rolls in direction of the then chief minister Golap Borbora, said, �After Mangaldai Lok Sabha constituency, we had also carried out the investigation in other 81 legislative constituencies of Assam and detected lakhs of illegal citizens. But due to conspiracies, our mission didn�t succeed.�

Former MLA Ajay Kumar Dutta along with a galaxy of eminent personalities of the State was also present in the programme.