The Bangladesh media is showing a keen interest on the issue of the update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. Though some newspapers are merely reporting the facts, including the Supreme Court order on Wednesday, some went overboard and misrepresented facts and gave wide publicity to the statements made by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
It is evident that most of the newspapers in the neighbouring country are not fully aware of the process of the NRC update, which has been going on under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court and reported that more than 40 lakh people living in Assam were stripped of citizenship at a time when only the complete draft of the NRC has been published and there is scope for filing claims and objections. Moreover, the Government of India has already made it clear that no action would be taken against anyone on the basis of the draft NRC.
One prominent newspaper of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Pratidin, reported that over 40 lakh people of Assam lost their citizenship at a time when no decision has yet been taken by the Government of India on the fate of those whose names will not appear in the final NRC.
Another prominent newspaper of the neighbouring country, Jugantor, reported that over 40 lakh Bengalis would be deported from Assam without knowing the fact that the NRC was not prepared on the basis of language or religion and the main aim of the whole exercise was to determine the nationality of the people living in Assam irrespective of their religion or language.
The newspaper also went on to report that many families of Assam would be broken as names of a huge number of married women did not figure in the draft NRC. The paper also gave wide publicity to the statements made by the West Bengal Chief Minister against the NRC.
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