A sudden half-a-day meeting in the national capital prompted Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to rush to the residence of Home Minister Amit Shah. Among the other issues concerning the state, there was a discussion on the pending NRC matter.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, Assam chief Minister said, “We discussed the issue of NRC with the Home Minister. The decision of the state government as well as the central government vis-a-vis demanding a review of the NRC is a matter on which both of us are on the same page. However, we love to see what the Supreme Court says in this matter given the fact that apex court has said that the list published was final but we will also look at the intervention of the SC to solve this matter.”
It may be remembered that the BJP in its Assam election manifesto had mentioned that one of the decisions would be to review the NRC and look at the matter afresh after finding several discrepancies in the NRC register which was published earlier.
However, recently The Assam’s Foreigners’ Tribunal had observed that the NRC was published by the orders of the Supreme Court and that the list published in August 2019 is final.
While talking on the same, Himanta told CNN News18, “The Foreigners’ Tribunal has not read the verdict of the Supreme Court. It is said in the order that till NRC is not notified nobody can take cognizance of the data officially as data is not available with anyone.”
In the meeting that happened at the Shah’s official residence, a number of issues concerning Assam were discussed, including the crucial meeting that Sarma will have while in Nagaland on Tuesday to meet with the representatives of the opposition-led government that was recently notified by the state. This move is said to be an important one in the buildup to the Naga peace process, a long pending demand of the state. “I am going tomorrow to Dimapur and I will be visiting the state as the NEDA convener. My visit is purely political in nature,” Sarma added.
A meeting of all legislators, including Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), Naga People’s Front (NPF), BJP and Independents, was called in the capital Kohima on Saturday. In the meeting chaired by Nagaland chief minister Nephiu Rio, a unanimous resolution was passed to adopt an opposition-less government, thereby adopting the new nomenclature United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
