People wait in queue to check their names on the draft list at the National Register of Citizens (NRC) centre at a village in Nagaon district, Assam state, India
One of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's biggest critics is rallying opposition parties against his government after a new list of citizens excluded 4 million people from a border state in a drive against illegal immigrants.
The draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) is the result of a years-long agitation by residents of the northeastern state of Assam demanding expulsion of the immigrants from Muslim-majority Bangladesh just over the border.
Work on it accelerated under the state and federal governments of Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the exclusions from the list released on Monday have given ammunition to opposition parties to band together against Modi's re-election bid next year.
More than 4 million people in the northeastern state of Assam fear they will be stripped off their citizenship after their names were excluded from a list the Indian government published on Monday.The National Register of Citizens (NRC) list is unique to Assam. It was first tabulated in 1951, four years after independence from British rule, to distinguish Indian citizens from illegal migrants from bordering Bangladesh, which was then part of Pakistan.In 2015, the government began a process of updating the list. The new list includes only those people or their descendants who entered India till midnight of March 24, 1971, when Bangladesh became an independent state.The first draft of the list published on Monday leaves out 4 million people, said officials.Most of the people excluded from the list are Muslims, raising fears among the community that they are being targeted unfairly by the Hindu nationalist government.In order to prevent communal violence the state government has beefed up security.Authorities have asked people to maintain peace arguing that everyone will get a chance to plead their case.Addressing a press conference in the state capital Guwahati, Registrar General of India, Sailesh said that the process of filing objections would begin on Aug. 30 and continue till Sept. 30.Satyendra Garg, a senior Home Ministry official, who was also present at the media briefing, said no one would be sent to detention camps. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted on Sunday: “I reiterate that no genuine Indian citizen will be devoid of their citizenship rights. So no one should panic after publication of the final draft of NRC...”Indian Parliament on Monday saw protests by several opposition parties. The parliament’s Raja Sabha, council of states, had to be adjourned twice following uproar by opposition parties over the matter.Home Minister Rajnath Singh in a statement issued in New Delhi on Monday said: “This is only a draft and not the final NRC." All India United Democratic Front, a political party which represents the minorities, especially the Muslims, has expressed shock at the outcome."At the moment we are appealing to the people to maintain peace and harmony. We are law abiding citizens. But we will definitely approach the court," AIUDF general-secretary Aminul Islam told Anadolu Agency.Muslim survivors of Indian massacre shaken by citizenship testPanel proposes 'India only' policy for critical dataIndia plans to battle pollution staining the Taj Mahal yellow and green
4 million people may lose Indian citizenship
India said on Monday it had excluded more than 4 million people from a draft list of citizens in the border state of Assam who could not produce valid documents, a move that has sparked fears about the future of thousands in the region.Security has been tightened across the state, which borders Bangladesh, as thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims worry about being sent to detention centres or deported, a Reuters witness said.The tea-rich state of Assam has long been the centre of social and communal tensions with locals campaigning against illegal immigrants, a fight that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist-led government has championed.In 1983, scores of people were chased down and killed by machete-armed mobs intent on hounding out Muslim immigrants.The government said the draft was not meant to drive people out and those struck out of the list would have a chance to re-apply.Video: Muslims of India's Assam on the verge of becoming stateless"Based on this draft, there is no question of anyone being taken to detention centres or foreigners’ tribunal," Sailesh, India's census commissioner who uses only one name, told rerporters in Guwahati, the state's main city.Hundreds of thousands of people fled to India from Bangladesh during Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan in the early 1970s. Most of them settled in Assam, which has a near-270 km (165-mile) border with Bangladesh. More than 30 million people had applied and 4,007,707 had been excluded from the list, Sailesh said.To be recognised as Indian citizens, all residents of Assam had to produce documents proving that they or their families lived in the country before March 24, 1971.Sailesh did not provide a breakup of people who had failed to make to the draft list.Critics see the citizenship test as another measure supported by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aimed at minority Muslims. The BJP denies any bias but says it opposes a policy of appeasement of any community.Authorities in the state have previously said the citizenship test was crucial to protect ethnic Assamese, many of whom have demanded removal of outsiders they accuse of taking jobs and cornering resources in the state of 33 million.The first draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), released on Dec. 31, confirmed the citizenship of 19 million people, leading to jubilation for some and heartbreak among others.The NRC, however, told the Supreme Court this month that 150,000 people from the first list, a third of them married women, would be dropped from the next one, mainly because they provided false information or gave inadmissible documents."If the government has decided to brand us foreigners what can we do?" said Abdul Suban, 60, a Bengali-speaking Muslim, earlier."The NRC is trying to finish us off. Our people have died here, but we will not leave this place."
India sparks fear by excluding 4 million Muslims from citizens' list in Assam
Mamata Banerjee, the firebrand chief minister of India's eastern state of West Bengal, accused the BJP of trying to make millions of people stateless for political reasons.
"This can't be tolerated and that's why India needs a change, and the change must come in 2019, for the betterment of the people of this country," Banerjee said at an event in New Delhi.
Outside parliament, her regional All-India Trinamool Congress led a protest by lawmakers from seven political parties, who held placards demanding "Stop this divide and rule policy" and "Why have Indian citizens become refugees in their own country?"
Assam has been racked by waves of violence over the years as residents, including tribal groups, have clashed with both Hindu and Muslim settlers, whom they accuse of plundering resources and taking away jobs.
BJP President Amit Shah hit back at the opposition, saying his party was the only one that dared to take a firm stance against illegal immigration. He said migrants from Bangladesh had no place in India.
Seven million Muslims who are being oppressed in India's northern state of Assam are on the verge of becoming "stateless" under the racist Hindu regime. 
Muslims of India's Assam on the verge of becoming stateless
India does not have a deportation pact with Bangladesh, however, and the government has said it would decide on the fate of those eventually deemed foreigners in consultation with the Supreme Court, which is monitoring the registration process.
In Assam, many applicants queued for the second day at government booths to check their citizenship status, with some relieved at finding their names on the list while others who did not make it hung around, dejected.
There have been no reports of violence and security remains tight.
U.N. concerns
A final list is expected in December, but rights activists fear it might strip citizenship from many, especially Muslims who have lived in the region for decades.
"Assam has long sought to preserve its ethnic identity, but rendering millions of people stateless is not the answer," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"Indian authorities need to move swiftly to ensure the rights of Muslims and other vulnerable communities in Assam are protected from statelessness," she said in a statement.
William Spindler, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the agency was concerned about the registration process and monitoring it closely.
The UNHCR also appealed to the Indian government not to deport those who fail to qualify for citizenship, even after claims and appeals are exhausted.
Bangladesh has not had any communication from New Delhi on the issue, said Jyotirmay Dutta, a senior official of its interior ministry.