Shiladitya Dev is a former BJP MLA from Assam. Recently, he held a press conference, and in that press conference, he said that currently, there are more than 80 lakh Bangladeshi Muslims living in Assam.




According to him, the voter list in Assam is not error-free, and he also does not accept the NRC that was conducted in Assam.

He said this because, in his view, there are over 80 lakh Bangladeshi Muslims residing in Assam, and the NRC is not accurate. He also claimed that the voter list is not error-free because there are many Muslims whose names appear in both the Bangladesh voter list and the Indian voter list.

He further alleged that there are over 80 lakh Bangladeshi Muslims in Assam, and around 4 to 5 crore Bangladeshi Muslims across India, living in different states and districts.

What is NRC and when was it started?

 The NRC (National Register of Citizens) was first started in 1951, and then it was continued again in 2015. When it was restarted in 2015, the first draft came out, but many people’s names were missing due to some errors. Later, people filed claims to include their names.

When the final draft was released in 2019, about 19 lakh (1.9 million) people’s names were not included. According to the government, many of those excluded were actually genuine Indian citizens, including indigenous people of Assam.

That is why the government requested the Supreme Court to allow a re-verification of the NRC. The Supreme Court has accepted the request for 100% re-verification, and the process will be carried out.

However, many people believe that since the NRC process has already been completed, there is no need for re-verification again. Because of this difference of opinion, the matter is still under discussion in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, AAMSU (All Assam Minority Students’ Union), together with Jamiat Ulema, has filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding that people whose names are already included in the NRC list should be issued ID cards to confirm their citizenship.

According to sources, the Supreme Court has agreed in principle, but it is still unclear whether the Court has officially made this decision or not.