NEW DELHI, July 3 � State Agriculture Minister Rakibul Hussain on Friday admitted albeit hesitantly that the State Government�s recommendation for inclusion of linguistic minorities and other persecuted communities in the voters� list may fall foul of the Assam Accord.
Addressing a press conference here this afternoon to clarify his statement to the media at Guwahati yesterday, Hussain said that the issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the State Government�s recommendation to the Centre were two separate issues and should not have been linked, leading to distortion of his statement yesterday.
Clarifying his position, Hussain said that as far as the issue related to NRC was concerned, all those whose names were included in the voters� list till the cut-off date of March 25 1971 would be considered for inclusion in the NRC and the Tarun Gogoi Government has not taken any decision to the contrary.
However, there was an old Cabinet resolution which was adopted by the Gogoi Government supporting a proposal to grant citizenship to the linguistic minorities and others like Buddhist and Christians who fled the neighbouring country following religious persecution. �Those who have fled because of fear of life and those who face religious persecution should be given citizenship on humanitarian grounds,� this was the stand of the State Government, the Minister said.
�The Cabinet resolution is not new as we had submitted it to the then UPA Government as well as to the present NDA Government, Hussain said.
Clarifying that there was no Cabinet meeting on the NRC, the State Government spokesman said that the Supreme Court is monitoring its implementation and the State Government has nothing to add,� he said.
About the voters� list though, Hussain quoted the then Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta to claim that the rolls were correct as it has gone through intensive revision.
When asked about the �D� voters, he said that those whose names are in the list can apply, but after it is scrutinised by the Foreigners Tribunals.
