Additional NRC draft exclusion list: Names of Assam movement leader's family members excluded

The Assam movement demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants was only a year old then and was at its peak. Vaijayanti Devi, a girl in her early twenties who was known as an activist in the movement, participated in the “Rannsinga Divas” organised by All Assam Students Union in her home district Tezpur to further strengthen the movement. “Thousands of students along with Vaijayanti Devi blew conch shells, declaring the coming of the movement. While blowing the conch shell, she suffered a stroke and immediately fell senseless. She was immediately hospitalised but later passed away,” said Arup Talukdar, president of Tezpur District Committee of AASU. Later, Vaijayanti Devi was listed among the youths who sacrificed their lives in the movement. Her brother Rajen Upadhyay was given a job in the social welfare department in recognition of her contribution to her sacrifice. After the movement, the activists formed a government in 1985. But 39 years later and on the same date as the “Rannsinga Divas”, late Vaijayanti’s sister-in-law and Rajen’s wife Nirmala Devi’s name has been dropped from the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a procedure initiated to identify illegal immigrants. On Wednesday, the state co-ordinator of the NRC issued an additional exclusion list with names of 1,02, 462 persons whose names were earlier included in the NRC, but were later found to be ineligible to qualify as Indian citizens.

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