Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, had on Sunday called on New Delhi to avoid stripping people of their nationality, saying it "would be an enormous blow to global efforts to eradicate statelessness". But foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar defended the process, saying the NRC "does not make the excluded person 'stateless'" and any decisions taken would be consistent with Indian law and its "democratic traditions".
"It (the NRC) also does not make him or her a 'foreigner', within the legal meaning of the term," Kumar said in a statement released late Sunday.
"For those who are not in the final list, (they) will not be detained and will continue to enjoy all the rights as before until they have exhausted all the remedies available under the law." Assam, a poor and isolated state of 33 million, is largely surrounded by Bangladesh and has long seen influxes of migrants - even during Britain's colonial rule. But under the NRC, only those who can demonstrate they or their forebears were in India before 1971 can be included in the list. Those left off have 120 days to appeal at so-called Foreigners Tribunals, and can also appeal their case through the courts.
A senior government official told reporters late Monday that some 500 tribunals would be up and running by December, and "even those cases who don't approach the tribunal will be scrutinised by the tribunal". He added that the government would provide legal support to those who can't afford to pursue their cases through the judicial system. Critics have said the NRC process reflects the BJP's goal to serve Hindus, with a large chunk of those excluded expected to be Muslims.
But there has been growing outrage among local BJP leaders, who claim many Bengali-speaking Hindus - a key vote bank for the party - had also been left off the list. The official said claims that the list was biased against a particular religion "has absolutely no basis", adding that equal numbers of Hindus and Muslims were excluded. "The entire process is fair and based on scientific methods. It is a non-discriminatory process and has absolutely no religious angle," the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP.