NRC tool to render Muslims stateless: USCIRF

New Delhi, 18 Nov 2019 [Fik/News Sources]: National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam is a tool to “target religious minorities and to render Muslims stateless” states the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

The federal US commission on international religious freedom observed that the final NRC list has excluded 19 lakh residents.

USCIRF pointed out that a number of domestic and international organisations have expressed concern that the NRC is a “targeted mechanism to disenfranchise Assam’s Bengali Muslim community, implicitly establishing a religious requirement for citizenship and potentially rendering large numbers of Muslims stateless.”

According to News18 the USCIRF asserts, “As a tool to target religious minorities and, in particular, to render Indian Muslims stateless has become one more example of the downward trend in religious freedom conditions within India.”

The USCIRF also alleged that following the August 2019 release of the NRC, the BJP government has taken steps that “reflect an anti-Muslim bias.”

It further noted, “The BJP has indicated its intent to create a religious test for Indian citizenship that would favour Hindus and selected religious minorities but exclude Muslims”.