'Children excluded from NRC will not be sent to detention centres': Venugopal assures SC

Attorney General of India KK Venugopal on Monday, January 6 assured the Supreme Court that children who have been excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, but whose parents have been granted citizenship under the same, shall not be sent to detention centres. A petition had earlier expressed distress over the plight of almost 60 children who did not make it to the citizens’ register but their parents did. According to an application, there was an apprehension that these children would be sent to detention centres as a result of the discrepancy. 

However, AG assured the Supreme Court today that these students will not be separated from their parents. The Bench of Chief Justice included SA Bobde and Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant. Furthermore, the Court proceeded to issue a notice to the Union of India and the State of Assam on this plea and sought a reply within four weeks.

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Detention centre's debate

The politics around detention centres started after PM Modi said that there were no detention centres in Assam set up by his government. This was countered by former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who shared a news clip showing the detention centre in Assam's Goalpara stating that the Home Ministry in 2018 had sanctioned Rs. 46.41 crores to construct it, which has allegedly been 70% completed. He further alleged that PM Modi was lying to the public.

The BJP countered this stating that the UPA government's Ministry of Home Affairs had admitted in 2011 that three detention camps were opened in Assam - Goalpara, Kokrajhar, and Silchar where 362 people have been detained in these detention camps. Former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi too admitted to the centre's existence, adding that they were needed as Bangladesh was not accepting genuine foreigners back in their country then. He has since then shifted the blame to BJP asking 'Why did they not stop infiltrators?'

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