THE DEMAND for implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur would need to be understood and considered with reference to the origin of NRC and its implementation in Assam which is the only state where NRC is being implemented.
From 1979 to 1985, Assam was in turmoil as the native Assamese people felt overwhelmed and agitated by the influx of lakhs of immigrants from erstwhile East Pakistan which was renamed as Bangladesh. People had fled abuses of war in East Pakistan triggering a mass influx of refugees into Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and other nearby states of India as well as Myanmar. The agitation of the foreigner problem in Assam was settled under the Assam Accord signed in 1985 between leaders of the Assam Movement, Central and State Governments. The Accord specified that all persons who came to Assam prior to 1st January 1966 (inclusive) and up to 24th March 1971 (midnight) shall be detected in accordance with the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1939. The leaders of the Assam Movement agreed to accept all immigrants who had entered into Assam prior to 1st January 1966 and agreed to the detection, deletion, and expulsion of foreigners who entered Assam after 25th March, 1971. The Assam Accord resulted in introduction of Section 6A into the Citizenship Act, of 1955, exclusively for Assam which allows foreign migrants of Indian origin, who came to Assam after the 1st January, 1966 but before the 25th March, 1971, to seek Indian citizenship. This provision addressed the issue of large-scale migration preceding the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
As an outcome of the Assam Accord, a National Register of Citizens (NRC) was prepared from the records of Census of 1951 in respect of each village of Assam, showing the houses or holdings in a serial order and indicating against each house or holding the number and names of persons staying therein. Maintained by the Government of India, the NRC keeps all the important information of the Indian citizens of Assam required for their identification. The objective behind the NRC update is the identification of the illegal migrants who migrated from Bangladesh after 24th March 1971 to Assam. It also aims at determining whether the citizens applying for inclusion of their names in the NRC are genuine citizens of Assam or not. One of the basic criteria for identification is that the names of the family members of the applicant should be present in the NRC list prepared in 1951 or in the electoral rolls up till 24th March, 1971. A person also can present the following documents as proof of his/her citizenship in respect of Assam:
- Birth certificate
- LIC policy
- Refugee registration certificate
- Land and tenancy records
- Citizenship certificate, passport, government-issued licence or certificate
- Bank/post office accounts and permanent residential certificate
- Government employment certificate, educational certificate and court records
NRC has been implemented for the state of Assam starting in 2013–2014. The NRC of 1951 was updated in Assam in August 2019 with the complete draft excluding 19 lakh people out of 3.3 crore applicants for the lack of adequate documents to prove their citizenship. A sizeable number of those excluded are suspected to be non-Muslims who came to Assam from Bangladesh. The NRC has only been implemented in India’s northeast state of Assam so far, where 19 lakh people, including Hindus and Muslims, were left out of the citizenship list in August 2019.
The Constitution of India implemented in 1950 guaranteed citizenship to all of the country’s residents at the commencement of the constitution, and made no distinction on the basis of religion. In 1955, the government of India passed the Citizenship Act, by which all people born in India subject to some conditions were accorded citizenship. The Act also provided two ways for foreigners to acquire Indian citizenship. People from “undivided India” i.e. by registration after seven years of residency in India and those from other countries by way of naturalisation after twelve years of residency in India. The Act was first amended in 1986 after the Assam Accord opening the path for granting citizenship to all Bangladeshi migrants who arrived before 25th March 1971 subject to some specific conditions. The government also agreed to identify all migrants that arrived afterwards, delete their names from the electoral rolls, and deport them to their country. The Citizenship Act has been further amended in 1992, 2003, 2005, 2015 and 2019. The amendments mandated the Central Government to create and maintain a National Register of Citizens and to issue national identity cards to all the registered citizens. It added the element of “illegal immigrants” to the Act, making them ineligible to apply for citizenship (by registration or naturalisation), and declaring their children also as illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are defined as citizens of other countries who entered India without valid travel documents, or who remained in the country beyond the period permitted by their travel documents. They are liable to be deported or detained/imprisoned. The CAA of 2019 provides for exemption to northeastern regions of India under clause (4) of section 6B which states that nothing in this section shall apply to tribal area of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the area covered under “The Inner Line” notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. The CAA of 2019 also amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 and provided an accelerated pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who arrived in India by 31st December, 2014. The eligible minorities are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians. The law does not grant such eligibility to Muslims from these countries. The rules of Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) has been notified on 11th March 2024 four years after its amendment and it allows non-Muslims who fled religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan and took refuge in India by 31st December, 2014, to get citizenship faster than the normal process. The CAA is opposed in some quarters today as it conspicuously omit Muslim refugees/migrants from its ambit, and promises to legitimise Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians refugees/migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan which goes against the Assamese ethno-nationalists, and increasingly, Tripuri tribals, as they feel threatened by the rising number of Bengali speakers.
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It can be summarised here that the Citizenship Act, 1955 under which a NRC was prepared for Assam, enabled illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who entered Assam before 25th March, 1971 to become citizen of India. While the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 notified on 11th March 2024 enabled Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians who fled religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan and took refuge in India before 31st December, 2014 to become citizens of India. These rules excluded Muslims. In short, the outcome of the Assam Accord enabled all illegal immigrants who entered Assam before 25th March 1971 to become citizens of India and the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 will now enable illegal Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians who fled religious persecution and took refuge in India before 31st December, 2014 to become citizens of India. The rules of 2024 will facilitate a sizeable number of non-Muslims who came to Assam from Bangladesh but were so far excluded from the update NRC of August 2019 for Assam to become citizens of India.
In the context of Manipur immigration has taken place broadly three times. First, the sporadic gradual streams of immigration of the Kuki-Zomi tribes into Manipur mainly from Myanmar and the Lushai hills since the days of the Manipur Kingdom. The second influx were the Bangladeshis entering Manipur in 1971 as in the case of Assam, but the numbers could be a few thousand illegal immigrants. The third influx are the Myanmarese Chin (widely understood as Kuki-Zomi) persons entering Manipur mainly after the Myanmar military coup in February 2021. The recent entrants into Manipur could be categorised more as refugees rather than immigrants as they are fleeing temporarily from a war zone and atrocities perpetrated by the Myanmar military regime. The total number of illegal Myanmarese refugees in Manipur would be around 50 thousand persons. A larger chunk of Myanmarese refugees have taken shelter in Mizoram. Unlike Assam where the influx can be classified as illegal immigrants, the persons entering Manipur and Mizoram after the military coup in Myanmar can be classified as migrant refugees. Manipur has begun the process of deportation of illegal Myanmarese migrant refugees and most of them, whose bio metrics have been recorded, are expected to return to their country once the turmoil subsides there.
The number of refugee migrants entering Manipur is incomparable with the number of illegal immigrants entering Assam. In Assam the refugee immigrants from Bangladesh is estimated at 50 lakhs of which 19 lakhs are facing the risk of being deported. In Tripura the influx of immigrants mainly started from the 1970s after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. The proportion of the local Tripuri population reduced from 59.1% in 1951 to 31.1% in 2011 rendering the native Tripuri as minorities in their own state. All major political parties in Tripura favour the replication of NRC in their state with some conditions. Manipur government too has favoured implementation of NRC to identify illegal immigrants who may have entered the state after the cut off year to be fixed by the state government. The source of data for preparation of NRC for Manipur could be from Census 1951, Census 1961 or any other date fixed by the state government. The crucial question that arises would be the availability of sufficient data and details in the Census of 1951 or 1961 or any other Census year to prepare a NRC for Manipur. The challenge would be in the preparation of a National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Manipur based on Census data in respect of each village, showing the houses or holdings in a serial order and indicating against each house or holding the number and names of persons staying therein.
Manipur government will face many challenges in the implementation of NRC but it will be an exercise which needs to be carried out as identification and deportation of illegal immigrants could become one of the prickly issues for restoring normalcy in the state. The parameters for preparation of NRC for Manipur needs to be based on a consensus to be worked out in consultation with all stakeholders that all foreigners from Bangladesh and Myanmar who entered Manipur after a cut off year will have to be identified and deported back to their country. The NRC exercise will entail vigorous consultation process across the state to iron out any differences or disagreements that may emerge or crop up during its implementation. Consultation and consensus is crucial for ensuring full cooperation and support from all communities for the NRC exercise to be successfully implemented in the state of Manipur.
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Ngaranmi Shimray is an activist and political observer based in New Delhi. View are personal. Shimray2011@gmail.com. Feedback/comment @Aran Shimray on X
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