GUWAHATI: It’s not only fake news on xopadhora (child-lifters) or other hate/funny messages which are making the rounds on social media but serious issues like the National Register of Citizens (NRC) updation process is also getting affected by the fake news syndrome which are getting circulated on various social media channels.
A few days ago, the NRC Secretariat had issued a scathing statement against a news item published on Al Jazeera channel. A senior journalist had reported NRC coordinator Prateek Hajela as saying that some 4.8 million people in Assam have failed to provide appropriate legacy data documents.
Talking to G Plus, Hajela had said, “I have never given such a quote to any journalist. I don't even know about the media organisation publishing such news.”
Recently, a piece of news saying that lakhs of Indians could be dropped from NRC is making the rounds. A blog written by a Guwahati based advocate titled “Fear Grips Assam as names of lakhs of Indians could be dropped from NRC” had provided an estimated mathematical calculation that around 5 lakh people will suffer.
A paragraph in the advocate’s blog said, “Since 1985, around one lakh (1,00,000) people have been declared as foreigners. Approximately 20,000 orders of Tribunal (mostly ex parte, that was issued without hearing both sides) have been set aside by different judicial forums. However, there are still 80,000 declared ‘foreigners’. Let’s assume, on an average a so-called ‘foreigner’ has 4 siblings. That makes a total of three lakh twenty thousand (3,20,000) siblings. Along with the declared ‘foreigners’, this makes up a total of four lakh (4,00,000) people. The family members of those 4 lakh people will include their children and grandchildren. On an average at least 6 family members of each person (very liberal estimate considering higher fertility rate among poor and illiterate people who have been declared as ‘foreigners’) thus it makes over two million people!”
The mathematical calculation is speculative in nature, but the blog created legitimate fear among many applicants of NRC.
However, the NRC authorities have claimed that the news was fake.
Standing Counsel for NRC, Anita Verma said, “So much speculation has been created online by blogs, which do not appear to be true. Every verification done by the NRC authorities has been kept confidential and it is only on the publishing of the draft list that the actual figures will be out. Self assessment of such huge numbers is really astonishing, which is enough to create fear and unrest amongst the people.”
The lawyer who wrote the blog had later asked the publishers of his article to delete the above mentioned paragraph.
He later said, “I had mathematically calculated the numbers of people that could have been dropped from the NRC because of the letters dated 2nd and 25th May 2018 of the State Coordinator of the NRC.
Subsequently, the State Coordinator has clarified that many declared foreigners have done a vanishing act and hence I believe that the number will be very less. We have been campaigning for a free and fair NRC since the beginning. It has come to light that some vested interested parties could misuse the post and speculative numbers to derail the process of the NRC. Hence I request you to expunge the paragraph where I mathematically calculated the number. For your convenience I would like to quote the entire para which I want to withdraw from the post. Although the fears are genuine among people, I don’t want to give vested interest parties any opportunities to derail the process of the NRC. Hence I wish to withdraw the above para from the article.”
The lawyer had written the blog for the online portal, CJP.
Actually the mathematical calculation in the blog was done on the assumed estimation of the siblings of the declared foreigners.
Interestingly, the blog written by the lawyer was made according to two letters issued by the NRC authorities.
Actually on 2nd May 2017, the Gauhati High Court had observed that once a person is declared to be a foreigner, it would be only the logical corollary to such declaration that his brothers and sisters and other family members would also be foreigners.
The state coordinator for NRC informed the Registrar General of India (RGI) on 15th March 2018 who granted approval to comply with the court’s order.
Accordingly, the NRC authorities issued a letter on 2nd May 2018 to all deputy commissioners (DCs) of Assam regarding eligibility status of brothers, sisters and other family members (declared foreigners’ siblings) of persons declared as foreigners by the foreigner tribunals (FTs).
It is after this letter was issued that the advocate had written the blog calculating the speculated figure.
The NRC coordinator, on 25th May 2018, again issued a letter clarifying who should be put on hold. According to his letter to all the DCs, the persons whose references (cases referred to FTs) are made by the border police will be put on hold.
According to the NRC coordinator, around 4,238 declared foreigners have been identified and their names will not be listed in the NRC. Calculating their siblings, names of around 43,000 declared foreigners’ siblings were sent to the border police for investigation and for making references if required. So unless references are not made by the border police the NRC will not hold the names of the siblings of the declared foreigners.
Whatever may be the calculation how many persons will be barred from being enlisted in the NRC remains a matter of speculation but fake news related to the calculation involving the NRC updating process that is continuing to emanate remains a matter of concern.