Assam BJP Lawmaker's Nephew Not On Citizen's List, Says "It Happens"

A controversial new list of citizens that excludes four million people from Assam has made some notable omissions, including a former President's family. Another miss involves the family of a parliamentarian of the ruling BJP. Assam MP Bijoya Chakravarty, a former union minister, today admitted to NDTV that her nephew had been left out of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam. "Yes, his name was not there. Just for a few hours," she said, confirming the mistake in the middle of her emphatic defence of the citizen's list.

"He was outside the country. He has filed a review and he is getting it. Sometimes, it happens. It will be corrected," Ms Chakravarty said to NDTV.

Regardless, the BJP parliamentarian said her party's government in Assam should be praised for doing a commendable job of updating the citizen's list.

The draft list, which is the first update of the citizen's list since 1951, has generated a mega political row, with the opposition accusing the BJP of targeting Muslims in the name of identifying illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Opposition parties also allege that many genuine citizens have been left out of the list.

Among them are the nephew and three other relatives of former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. They said they could not apply to be included in the citizen's list on time because officials couldn't digitise pre-1971 data in time.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has taken the lead in campaigning aggressively against the citizen's list, warning of "civil war and bloodbath".

Bijoya Chakrabarty lashed out at Mamata Banerjee, saying: "This is dangerous for external and internal security. If a chief minister incites civil war, how will the country survive?"

She said the NRC exercise had started 37 years ago, and people had been given time to prove their citizenship claim.