Humans of Assam is a collection of stories of people living in the state who fear losing their Indian citizenship. It is part of the month-long reporting project called The Final Count.
Sixty-two-year-old Pradip Kumar Bordoloi spent a week in prison during the Assam Agitation, an anti-foreigner movement that rocked the state from 1979 to 1985. The agitation came to an end when Assamese nationalists leading it signed the Assam Accord with the Union government.
It is to fulfil one of the conditions of the accord that Assam started updating its National Register of Citizens in 2015. The accord stated that anyone who came to India after March 24, 1971 would be treated as a foreigner and would be liable for deportation. The citizenry register, first compiled in 1951, is being updated to fulfill this provision.
But unexpectedly, Bordoloi, himself, has not made it to the draft NRC. He has had to attend several hearings to convince the NRC authorities that he and his family are not the “illegal migrants” whose expulsion he had fought for as a student leader.
‘Invalid’ application
In 2015, Bordoloi, like others in the state, applied to be included in the NRC. He filled his form online in an internet café, and even received an acknowledgment receipt stating that his application had been received. Yet, in July 2018, when he keyed in that application receipt number on the NRC website, the message on his mobile phone screen said, “Invalid ARN.”
An ARN or application receipt number is attached to every family applying to be included in the NRC.