Inside Story

National Register of Citizens: Indians or not Indians?

Almost two million people in the state of Assam became stateless after being excluded from a controversial register.

Imagine living in a country all your life before being told you are not a citizen there.

That is what nearly two million people are suddenly facing in India today.

They have been excluded from a list of citizens in the northeastern state of Assam, in a process the government said will “weed out” undocumented immigrants.

Critics say it is an attempt to deport millions of Muslims who make up a third of the state’s population.

Those excluded now have three months to prove they are not foreigners or face detention.

The National Register of Citizens was first created in 1951 to determine who came to the state before neighbouring Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan.

So is it a means of cracking down on undocumented migrants? Or just a ploy to target Muslims?

And how much of this is just playing politics?

Presenter: Hazem Sika

Guests:

Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty – deputy editor of the Wire

Desh Ratan Nigam – legal political analyst

Ronan Lee – visiting scholar at Queen Mary University’s International State Crime Initiative