The ABVP, a student body linked to the BJP, protests against the NRC in Assam.
With just two days left for Assam to release its final National Register of Citizens or NRC - a list intended to identify legal residents and weed out illegal immigrants - the ruling BJP's transformation from being its strongest advocate to its biggest sceptic has peaked. Accusing the man in charge of preparing the NRC Prateek Hajela of behaving like a "super chief minister" who is sympathetic to Muslims and not Hindus, firebrand BJP MLA Siladitya Dev has alleged that Bangladeshi Muslims are being included in the final list based on forged documents but genuine Hindus have been left out.
"The BJP always wanted NRC. We want error-free and correct NRC. We can't accept this NRC. In the last three years we realised that the NRC coordinator is reluctant to help the Hindu migrants who came before 1971 - the cut off year - but he is kind to the Bangladeshi Muslims who came after 1971," Mr Dev told NDTV.
"NRC has just become a process of documentation. If you can forge and buy documents, you are included and despite being genuine Indians, if you don't have document you are outside," Mr Dev told NDTV.
NRC authorities and coordinator Prateek Hajela, banned by the Supreme Court from speaking to the media, were unavailable for comment.
The state BJP leadership has already urged the state and central governments to introduce legislation to ensure that genuine Indians left out can be included later.
"There has been no wisdom on the part of the system to take care of the Hindu migrants. Lakhs and lakhs of Muslims have made it to NRC, all through fake data and documents. The country was divided on religious ground (in 1947). In 1951, NRC was made. When the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) was made, there were 15 documents that could be considered but Hajela who is behaving like a super chief minister, dropped five documents like refugee certificates that would have helped the Hindus particularly. Does this mean he was against the Hindus and in a way helping the Muslims?" Mr Dev said.
Assam, which had faced an influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is currently updating its NRC which was first prepared in 1951. The Supreme Court last month extended the deadline for the final publication of the list from July 31 to August 31.