Amit Shah promises to expel all illegal migrants by 2024 but Assam's failed NRC has a lesson or two for Centre

Home minister Amit Shah has promised to enforce a country-wide National Register of Citizens to 'weed out' illegal immigrants from the midst of India's population (estimated at around 1.3 billion) by 2024.
The register, in theory is an exercise to have a formal list of legal Indian citizens — with the stress on legality of citizenship — something that the Census of India does not entail.
Critics, however, argue that the exercise is communal and primarily singles out and targets Muslims, who they say would be required to prove their citizenship in an already hostile environment.
These allegations gain further credence with BJP pushing for another contentious policy change — the amendment to India's citizenship laws to include migrants of almost all religions except Muslims from neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Shah, however, claims that the exercise is not discriminatory in nature."The NRC has no such provision which says that certain religions will be excluded from it. All citizens of India irrespective of religion will figure in the NRC list. The NRC is different from Citizenship Amendment Bill," Amit Shah said in his address to the Rajya Sabha.