NEW DELHI, May 22 - President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday acting on the advice of the Prime Minister accepted the resignation of Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Sarbananda Sonowal from the Union Council of Ministers with immediate effect.
Further, as advised by the Prime Minister, the President has directed that Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh be assigned the independent charge of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, in addition to his existing portfolios.
Meanwhile, senior advocate and convenor of the Prabajan Virodhi Manch, Upamanyu Hazarika, reacting to Sonowal�s statement regarding sealing of the border within two years and updating of the NRC, said that these measures in themselves are insufficient as neither will save the indigenous people from becoming a minority by 2040.
�Nor will it identify all the foreigners because, firstly, NRC updating will confer citizenship on the children of illegal migrants born in Assam,� he said. Though post 1971 migrants are illegal, their children born in Assam will acquire citizenship by birth, which in itself is sufficient to turn indigenous communities into a minority, he added.
�Secondly, the NRC verification process has thrown up a large number of fake documentation which needs to be independently investigated because a large number of foreigners, 20 per cent of the State population according to the UPA government, and most of whom have applied for citizenship, obviously with fake documentation, this aspect needs to be investigated by not only prosecuting the foreigners but all those in government who have helped and assisted them, also to unravel the entrenched system by which foreigners illegally acquire citizenship,� said Hazarika.
Thirdly, given the fact that a large number of migrant population have acquired citizenship both legally and illegally, it is important that the identity and rights of indigenous people should be protected in a manner that they do not become a minority at all and this can be ensured only by ensuring land reservation and restricting land alienation to only those who were citizens in 1951 and also reservation of government jobs, Hazarika, who was the author of the report on illegal migration appointed by the Supreme Court, said.
