Many people became foreigners in their own country: Shashi Tharoor slams NRC

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor said here on Wednesday that National Register of Citizens (NRC) has made "many people who have families, careers, properties in India suddenly a foreigner" in their own country.

Speaking at an event here, Tharoor said: "You have taken people who know no other home but India, who have lived here, in many cases since 1971. Many people have lives, families, career, property, and everything in our country and now they are suddenly told they are foreigners and must be shunted to concentration camps."

The final list of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam was published on Saturday with around 19 lakh people not included in it. The opposition parties have raised fears that a large number of Indian citizens have been excluded. The list is aimed at segregating Indian citizens living in Assam from those who had illegally entered the state from Bangladesh after 1971.

Speaking about the Centre's move of abrogating Article 370, Tharoor said, "What is going on in Kashmir is a travesty of our democracy. You have subverted the spirit of the Constitution, you have gone ahead and changed the status of the state without consulting its elected legislature, which you have suspended."

"You have gone ahead and done this saying you have the consent of the state through the consent of the Governor, but you appointed the Governor, in effect you have taken your own consent to amend the Constitution," he said.

Earlier last month, Parliament defanged Article 370 and also passed the Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Bill 2019, bifurcating the state into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir with Assembly and Ladakh without legislature.