Tarun Gogoi, former Assam chief minister, criticised the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft, saying the list contained a lot of errors. He said that among the 40 lakh residents whose names have not been included in the draft list, a considerable number is that of Assamese people and genuine Indian citizens. He also mentioned the electoral list being a relevant document that could have been useful for verification.
The first draft of the NRC was released on the night of December 31, 2017 and January 1 and included the names of 1.9 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. The second final draft released on July 30 included 99 lakh more out of the 3.89 crore total applicants, leaving out nearly 40 lakh people. Since then, the Centre has been questioned by opposition political parties about the exclusion of these people from the list. The Centre has however clarified that this is not the final list and there are scope for further changes based on citizens’ claims.