Bista calms Gorkha worry He also met some of the Gorkha families whose names have been left out of NRC

Raju Bista (left) with Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday : Telegraph picture

Avijit Sinha, TT, 13.09.19,  Siliguri: Raju Bista, the Darjeeling BJP MP, indicated on Thursday that the Gorkhas living in Assam who have not made it to the final National Register of Citizens need not worry.

Bista, who met Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday, has also claimed that Sonowal has assured him that Gorkhas dwelling in his state will not be harmed in any way due to the exercise that excluded 19 lakh people from the list.

After the final list was published on August 31, the Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha, a social organisation of the Gorkha community having presence across the country, had claimed that around one-and-a-half lakh Gorkhas have been left out of NRC in Assam. Also, Mamata Banerjee, the Bengal chief minister, had expressed concern in the social media and had iterated that names of over one lakh Gorkhas are not there in the list.

“I met the chief minister (of Assam) to discuss the ongoing issues regarding the exclusion of Gorkhas from the NRC. I requested him to include Gorkhas as original inhabitants of Assam so that they won’t have to face any problem in the future and told him to issue a no-objection certificate from his government’s side for inclusion of 11 left out Gorkha communities as scheduled tribes,” said Bista, who was accompanied by Darjeeling MLA Neeraj Zimba.

After the issue came into surface and the Binay Tamang lobby of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha raised its voices against BJP on NRC issue, Morcha leader Bimal Gurung, who heads the other lobby, had mentioned that he will send the MP and the Darjeeling MLA to Assam.

Bista further mentioned that Sonowal has assured him that the Gorkha community has no need to worry, even if some names have been left out.

“He specifically emphasized that his government considers Gorkhas as Assamese people, and said that there is no need to keep referring them to as Gorkhas. He said that the Gorkhas are an integral and inalienable part of the Assamese community,” the MP added.

The MP also mentioned that the NRC process is being conducted under the monitoring of the Supreme Court, and that the state and the Centre have no involvement in the process.

“The chief minister (of Assam) expressed confidence that by the end of the NRC process, all genuine Assamese people will find their names in the list,” said Bista.

In course of his visit to the neighbouring state, Bista also met some of the Gorkha families whose names have been left out of NRC and also attended a meeting with representatives of All Assam Gorkha Students Union, Assam Gorkha Sammelan, Assam Nepali Sahitya Sammelan and Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangha.