GUWAHATI, Sept 13 - Six organisations of the State�s indigenous ethnic groups have warned the Union government not to play with the sentiment of the indigenous people on matters related to granting citizenship to the Hindu refugees of Bangladesh origin.
In a joint statement, they claimed that there is no legal provision in the country to grant citizenship to refugees. The move to grant citizenship to these people and the effort to enlist them as citizens of the country while updating the National Register of Citizenship (NRC), is ultra vires of the land of the law. The organisations which have acceded to this move of the government have betrayed the cause of the Assamese as well as the Indian people as a whole, they said.
The six organisations, which include the Singfou Jatiya Parishad, Sadou Assam Taifake Jatiya Parishad, Tangsha Naga Jatiya Parishad, Fralung Sangha (Assam), Sadou Assam Mohan-Deudhai-Bailung Sanmilan and Sema Naga Jatiya Parishad, have described the move of the Union government as a communal one.
In this respect, the organisations mentioned the June 15, 2017 reply of the Union Home Ministry to an RTI query made by Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha working president Matiur Rahman. The Deputy Secretary of the Union Home Ministry Ravi Sundar had told Rahman in his reply [No 25022/19/2017 (RTI)-F-IV] that there is no law in the country in regard to refugees.
The lenience of the Union government towards the Hindu refugees has earned a bad name for the country and this has provided the vested interest circles the scope to project the ongoing NRC updating process in the State as an anti-Muslim exercise, in the international fora, said the organisations.
