The stories of 'non'-citizens

'What grabbed my attention were the testimonies of people excluded from the NRC', says the author

Last week, I attended a two-day people’s tribunal on the issue of contested citizenship in Assam. Presentations by activists and lawyers on the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) were heard by a jury of eminent judges and academics. But what grabbed my attention were the testimonies of people excluded from the NRC.

Initially, when Masuma Begum of Lakhimpur found her name missing from the register, she wasn’t worried. She reasoned her parents’ names were there and her family had lived in Assam for generations. The only issue was that she was working in Guwahati, 400 km from her