FILE PHOTO: People wait to check their names on the draft list at the National Register of Citizens (NRC) centre at a village in Nagaon district, Assam state, India, July 30, 2018. REUTERSAn Indian minister on Wednesday defended a controversial citizens’ list to detect illegal immigrants from mainly Muslim Bangladesh, saying the growth in the Hindu population of a border state had been overtaken by that of Muslims.The draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) released on Monday excluded 4 million people from the northeastern state of Assam, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party came to power for the first time in 2016 promising action against illegal immigrants.Assam has the second highest percentage of Muslims among all states in Hindumajority India. The draft is the result of a years-long agitation by residents of Assam demanding expulsion of the immigrants from Muslim-majority Bangladesh just over the border. (RTRS)
Arab Times
FILE PHOTO: People wait to check their names on the draft list at the National Register of Citizens (NRC) centre at a village in Nagaon district, Assam state, India, July 30, 2018. REUTERS
