Prisoners in their own land 

A Foreigners' Tribunal in Assam of India labelled Madhubala Das of Chirang district as 'foreigner' after his death. 

Another resident of Bishnupur village in the district –Madhubala Mondol –has been in a detention camp for foreigners for three years, confirmed the Superintendent of Police Sudhakar Singh. 

Like them, lakhs of Bengali-speaking people are labelled 'foreigners' in their motherland by the government. 

Former vice-chancellor of Assam University, Tabodhir Bhattacharya, alleged that the government led by Narendra Singh Modi and Amit Shah is hatching a conspiracy to diminish Bengali-speaking people as a nation in India.

Taking advantage of the situation, some dishonest lawyers and police officials have been making a quick buck by blackmailing the locals, or else they are being threatened to be put on the non-citizen list of Assam, said a local source. 

Many allegations of irregularities are there against the police.  

Take for an instance, Mohammad Sanaullah was declared as foreigner, who won the president's award for his excellence in Indian army. He worked for the Indian army for 30 years. After his retirement, he joined Assam Border Police. He was also a LVO(Local Verification Officer).

He was identified as a "foreigner" by a Foreigners' Tribunal and sent to jail. He is currently on bail securing a High Court order. 

Now, the question arises: How did he become a foreigner?

Someone of his village Nalbari raised question about his citizenship to a LVO, Chandramal Das. Chandramal then sent a report to the superintendent of police (SP) that claimed Sanaullah as a foreigner. 

The report claimed Sanaullah confessed that he is a "Bangladeshi". 

But army record said he was assigned for a counter-terrorism drive conducted by Indian army in Monipur.

Based on the LVO's report, the SP sent a report to a Foreigners' Tribunal for investigation into the matter. 

Sanaullah was unaware of the proceedings. He was not even served any notice. He was sent to jail after the tribunal declared him a foreigner. 

Many Bengali-speaking people are being trapped by the police and LVO. There are 100 foreigners' tribunals in the state.  The state government is planning to open 1,000 more such tribunals. Of these, 200 are being opened in September.

Those will employ more people. 

National Register of Citizens (NRC) final list was published on August 31. About 3.29crore people applied for NRC. Of them, about 19.7lakh people were excluded from the NRC list. After preparing the final list, 19lakh people lost their rights to voting. Most of the excluded people are Hindus. The Hinduist Bharatiya Janata Party is worried for this. They are reconsidering to amend the list. 

Many excluded people become homeless and destitute while trying to appeal for their citizenship rights. 

In the list, it is also found that some members of the same family are in the NRC list and some of them have been excluded from the list. 

Many people coming from West Bengal have been labelled foreigners. Fifty-two thousand people were employed with the cost of 1,500crore rupees to make the list under the supervision of the Supreme Court. 

The excluded people have to go to foreigners' tribunal and prove their nationality there. If they fail to prove their nationality as Indian, they will be sent to detention camp for foreigners. They can appeal for bail from there. 

There are around 986 declared foreigners in the detention camp. The number is surging every day. 

Currently, six jails have detention camps. The government is building a detention camp for 3,000people with the cost of 46crore rupees in Goyalpara.