A few hours after the Centre issued National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam on August 31, the Shiv Sena leader and Union Minister Arvind Sawant emphasised on the need to 'weed out a large number of immigrants illegally living' in the metropolis and demanded the same exercise in Mumbai. Adding to his statements, he said that Shiv Sena was the first to raise the issue of Bangladeshis illegally residing in India. "This will hold good for the unity and internal security of the country," he asserted.

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Shiv Sena extols government's decision, Backs NRC

Sawant further said, "NRC was much needed in Assam to solve the problems of the original inhabitants of the region. That is why we supported the NRC move by the government and want a similar exercise to be held in Mumbai to drive out the Bangladeshis living here, once the process is over in Assam." Extolling the decision of the government he added, "The NRC move in Assam will make it possible to find out how many people from Bangladesh are living in the state illegally. It was very important to conduct it there. It was a matter of national security. Sanjay Raut, the Party Editor of Shiv Sena, said, "There are nearly 1 crore Bangladeshis in Greater Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and in the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region but they are nowhere on record."

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The Assam NRC 

The final list of NRC in Assam was published on August 31, with over 3 crore people being included in the list, excluding 19 lakh people from the list. The NRC has been updated to include the names of those persons (or their descendants), who appear in the NRC, 1951, or in any of the Electoral Rolls up to the midnight of 24th March, 1971 or in any one of the other admissible documents issued up to midnight of 24th March, 1971, which would prove their presence in Assam or in any part of India on or before 24th March, 1971. Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting said that the people excluded from the final list of NRC can make an appeal in the court and he assured justice for the debarred.

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