Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will travel to India for talks with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, with Dhaka’s concerns about people excluded from Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) expected to figure on the agenda.
Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to be in India on October 3 to 6.
As reported by Hindustan Times, India-Bangladesh relations have been strengthened under the two leaders, who have jointly lunched several projects, especially in connectivity.
Besides holding talks with Modi, Sheikh Hasina is set to address the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum on October 4.
During the talks, Dhaka is expected to bring up its concerns that those excluded from the NRC in Assam could be deported, Hindustan Time reported quoting people familiar with developments.
These concerns have been triggered by public comments by politicians in Assam, such as Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma, who said India will have to convince Bangladesh to “accept its citizens who had settled in India illegally.”
However, Indian Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, during his first visit to Dhaka in August, told his counterpart AK Abdul Momen the process of identifying illegal migrants in Assam is India’s “internal matter.”
India’s Ministry of External Affairs also said on Thursday the process of deciding the fate of nearly 2 million people left out of the NRC in Assam is expected to be “fairly long” and they have the right to appeal to Foreigners Tribunals and higher courts.
Hindustan Times, quoting the people cited above, also said Dhaka is expected to seek India’s support in facilitating the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.
The two sides are also expected to review progress in the implementation of development projects funded by India and the sharing of river waters. The two sides have strengthened anti-terror cooperation, especially the radicalisation of youngsters by terror groups.
NRC status of all applicants published
Meanwhile, NRC authorities on Saturday published the individual status of all the 33 million people of Assam who had applied for inclusion in the updated citizen’s registry when the exercise began five years ago.
The list – which has the names of those who have been accepted as citizens, those who have been rejected and those whose appeals are pending – was uploaded on the official NRC site less than a fortnight after 1.9 million people were excluded from the final NRC released on August 31, reports The Hindu.
One, however, has to key in the application receipt number (ARN), to view his or her citizenship status or that of the members of his or her family. Each applicant was provided a unique ARN generated after application for the NRC updating exercise.
‘No Foreigners Tribunals for indigenous’
About 30 organizations representing various indigenous organizations, including the All Assam Student’s Union (Aasu), have demanded that the indigenous people excluded from the final NRC be included without forcing them to approach Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) to establish their citizenship.
Rights groups and tribal organizations in Assam have claimed that at least 2,000 indigenous people have been excluded from the NRC allegedly for lack of proper documents. Among the NRC-excluded are Koch-Rajbongshi, Karbi, Reang and Bodo tribes. Many non-tribal Assamese people have also found themselves on the rejection list.