GUWAHATI, July 30 - After a long wait, the final draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published this morning. Many quarters have described this document as the basic legal document for the legal protection of the State�s indigenous people. But, the patriot couple, who were the architect of the entire process of updating this vital document, has preferred to remain behind the screen.
The couple is Pradip Kumar Bhuyan and his wife Banti Bhuyan. Pradip Kumar Bhuyan, an alumnus (1956 batch) of the IIT Kharagpur, is around 83 now. It was Pradip Kumar Bhuyan, who prepared the draft of the writ petition (civil) number 274/2009 and made Abhijit Sarma of the voluntary organisation Assam Public Works (APW) the petitioner, in the Supreme Court of India.
The Bhuyans extended support to Abhijit in this case, in which All Assam Students� Union also joined in 2012, with an intervention petition.
When contacted, the octogenarian Kharagpur IIT alumnus exuded satisfaction over the outcome of the NRC updating process. This is a homage to the martyrs of the Assam agitation, and those who suffered during the anti-aliens stir, he maintained.
Indigenous people of the State should ever remain grateful to the participants of the Assam agitation, to the country�s Supreme Court and to NRC State Coordinator Prateek Hajela, his team and thousands of field workers, who accomplished this gigantic task in such a dedicated manner, he said.
�The final draft is a fair draft. Over 40 lakh of names have been excluded from it. We were apprehensive of this size of illegal migrants in Assam. Though there may occur some changes in this figure, these won�t be significant.
�It should be remembered that this size of exclusion has occurred from among those who applied for inclusion of their names in the NRC. There are many others, who did not apply deliberately, knowing well that they are illegally staying in Assam. We are yet to ascertain their size, feared to be a significant one. However, this could be determined through meticulous scrutiny at the booth level,� he said.
For an immediate idea of the size of those who did not apply, he maintained that the 2011 census figures may be projected to 2018 and this will provide an indicative idea of the magnitude of the illegal migrants among the non-applicants, said the octogenarian patriot.
Abhijit Sarma of the APW, who filed the WP(C) number 274/2009, said the aliens issue, which remained knotty for quite a long time, has been resolved to a great extent after around 33 years, following the intervention of the Supreme Court. He ascribed the primary credit for this success to the Bhuyan couple.
�We moved the apex court with the initial plea to free Assam from the burden of foreigners. We expressed the apprehension before the apex court that around 41 lakh foreigners could get their names enrolled in the 2006 electoral rolls of Assam.
�Later on, in 2012, we filed an additional affidavit challenging the NRC updating modalities and we have got its result today. Now, the State�s indigenous peoples are to assume more responsibilities,� he said.
Reasoning, he said over 40 lakh names have been excluded from the draft NRC. Many forces will try to take advantage of this situation to mislead the people with the ultimate aim at derailing the entire NRC updating process.
On the issue of delivering justice to those autochthonous people whose names are not enumerated in the NRC draft, Sarma said they would inform the Supreme Court of the plight of these indigenous people whose names failed to figure in NRC draft erroneously.
