India's Assam State exclusion list gets flak from home and abroad

A citizenship list in the northeastern state of Assam in India that has left almost two million people facing statelessness has been received criticism even by its political backers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which runs Assam state where the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was collated, had asked for the list, saying it was necessary to detect "foreign infiltrators".

It's critics said the NRC process reflected the BJP's goal to serve Hindus, 80% of the Indian population, with many of those excluded expected to be Muslims.

Assam in the north-east is near
   But the strategy appears to have backfired with local BJP leaders claiming that many Bengali-speaking Hindus, a key vote bank for the party, were left off the list.

   "We do not trust this NRC. We are very unhappy," Ranjeet Kumar Dass, BJP party president in Assam told the Press Trust of India late Saturday.

   "Many people with forged certificates were included," Dass said, while 200,000 "genuine Indians" were left out.

   Those left off have 120 days to appeal at special Foreigners Tribunals.

   "If we see that FTs are delivering adverse judgements on the appeals by genuine Indian citizens... we will bring in legislation and make an act to protect them," Dass added.

   Some 100,000 Gorkhas, who speak Bengali, were also excluded from the list, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted Sunday as she called the NRC a "fiasco".

   A leader of the main opposition Congress party Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said his party would support those who were wrongly excluded, including providing them with legal aid.

   - UN stateless fears -
   UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi on Sunday called on the government to refrain from detaining or deporting anyone whose nationality is not verified through the process.

   "Any process that could leave large numbers of people without a nationality would be an enormous blow to global efforts to eradicate statelessness," Grandi added in a statement.

   Assam has long seen large influxes from elsewhere, including under British colonial rule and around Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence when millions fled into India.

   Under the NRC, only those who could demonstrate they or their forebears were in India before 1971 could be included in the list.

   Assam villagers told AFP about family members who were excluded even though they had similar documents to their relatives.

Many of those whose names do not appear on the lists are poor and illiterate. They are faced with having to take on a long and expensive legal process. The first main stop will be the appeal to a so-called foreigner tribunal.

The NRC comes just after New Delhi revoking the autonomy of Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, has reinforced fears among India's 170 million Muslim minority that they are being singled out by the central government.

The BJP has previously said it wants the NRC to be replicated nationwide, with Das