Assam citizenship crisis: ‘Though it’s India’s internal matter, it will have an impact on Bangladesh’

Human Rights Activist Advocate Sultana Kamal has said the exclusion of 19 lakh Bengali-speaking people from National Register of Citizens (NRC) list of Assam has created controversy around the world. 

“It has been an alarming issue for long time. Now the scraping of citizenship of these people has become a game against humanity. It’s a matter of serious concern. The political party now in power of our neighbouring country has made it more serious issue,” she told The Business Standard.

Sultana Kamal further said that though it’s India’s internal matter, it will have an impact on Bangladesh, which cannot be avoided anyhow as the excluded community of 19 lakhs are directly deemed as ‘Bangladeshis’. 

She also said whether now or later, Assam will try to prove their nationality as Bangladeshi. Bangladesh should prepare themselves diplomatically and internally so that if the excluded people are deported from India, it will not have any impact on Bangladesh. 

Sultana Kamal said Bangladesh has suffered much from Rohingya exodus. It was also deemed as ‘internal matter’ of Myanmar which has become the biggest challenging issue of Bangladesh. 

Bangladesh government should take tougher stance on Assam’s citizen exclusion issue from now, she added further.

The final National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam, which was updated after 68 years, was made public on Saturday.

A total of 1.9 million applicants, of the 32.9 million who had applied to be included in the list that identifies Indian citizens and weeds out illegal immigrants, failed to make the final cut.