An exercise to identify “illegal migrants” in Assam, ordered and monitored by the apex court of the country, found over 1.9 million residents without valid residential documents.
Manoharlal Khattar, Chief Minister of the northern state of Haryana, said his government will implement the NRC there as well.
"The state government is working on a fast pace on family identity card and its data would also be used in the National Register of Citizens (NRC)," Khattar said on Sunday, 15 September.
His counterpart in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath has also indicated that the NRC would be implemented in his state.
“These things are being implemented phase-wise and I feel that when Uttar Pradesh will need an NRC, we will do so….It is important for national security and it will also put a stop on the rights of the poor being taken away by illegal immigration,” Adityanath told the English daily The Indian Express on Monday.
The process of weeding out “illegal migrants” has been on the agenda of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but its minister in Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, has now come out against it, terming it as a “mixed bag” for them. Those residents of the state unable to find a place in the final National Register of Citizens or NRC have been given 120 days to appeal before dozens of Foreigners' Tribunals.
Biswas alleged that even the Bangladeshi Hindus, who had migrated to India before 1971, had been left out from the NRC, while many have manipulated data and gotten their names enlisted.
While several opposition parties have come out against the NRC, BJP Chief and federal Home Minister Amit Shah vowed the government would not allow “a single illegal immigrant to stay back in the country”.
The controversy over NRC has also been seized by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to whip up anti-India sentiments and connect it with Kashmir. He described it as part of a larger strategy against Muslims.
