Jamaat-e-Islami Hind to provide legal aid to those excluded from NRC/ Expresses concern over slowing down of Indian economy

Jamaat-e-Islami Hind to provide legal aid to those excluded from NRC; opposes extending it to other parts of the country

Jamaat expresses concern over slowing down of Indian economy

New Delhi: Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has announced that Jamaat would provide free legal aid to those who were excluded from the final list of the NRC-Assam. The Jamaat also opposed extending NRC to other states.

Addressing the monthly press conference of Jamaat today at its headquarters, JIH’s Vice President - S.Ameenul Hassan said: “Jamaat expresses grave apprehension on the fact that nearly two million people have been excluded from the final NRC list. We feel that many could not make it into the listbecause of minor inaccuracies in their documents. Jamaat will offer free legal aid those excluded from the NRC irrespective of their religion, caste and creed. We oppose extending the NRC process to other parts of the country. The Government should focus on core issues of welfare and development.”

Answering questions over NRC, the JIH Secretary for Community Affairs – Malik Mohtasim Khan said: “The NRC final list is a fitting answer to those who were saying that Assam has four million infiltrators. The NRC is a relief to the people of Assam. We demand that the government must provide reasons for exclusion in writing to those who could not find their names in this final list. We also expect that the government will not render these nearly two million citizens as “stateless” as it will be very damaging for India’s image in the international community. Those excluded must appeal and re-apply by submitting the required documents. They have 120 days to appeal before the foreigner’s tribunal and can further go to the Guwahati High Court and even the Supreme Court if they are not satisfied with the verdict of the tribunal. We also appeal to all justice loving people of India to help the people of Assam.”

When asked about the situation in Kashmir, JIH’s Vice President – Mohammed Jafar said: “we are also concerned as all the people of our country are over the situation in Kashmir. It is the duty of the government to ensure that the basic human rights of the people are granted. It must restore normalcy in the state as soon as possible by withdrawing the heavy military presence, uplifting the communications blockade and restoring democracy by allowing popular government to come to power.”

Expressing concern over the slowing down of Indian economy, Mr. Ameenul Hassan said, “India has slipped in the World Bank’s GDP rankings and GDP growth has reduced to 5% in the first quarter. FMCG giants like Hindustan Unilever, ITC and Godrej are reporting lower growth. Domestic air traffic growth is going down. Rail freight traffic is less than the average of previous five years. Real estate is piled with stock of unsold buildings that is almost seven years old. The automobile industry has 500,000 passenger vehicles and 30 lakh two-wheelers waiting to be sold. It is estimated that this slowdown in the auto industry is resulting in a job loss of around 350,000 workers. Export growth is also down. The banking industry continues to be plagued by NPAs and the NBFCs are in a crisis. Demonetization, GST, global-slowdown and agrarian crisis are proving to be difficult challenges for India’s economic revival.” He said, “Jamaat feels that the government has failed on all fronts of navigating the economy and should immediately convey an all-party meeting and appoint a committee with the best brains to revive and fix our economy. In the long term, JIH feels that we have to look very closely if interest-based banking system and a stock market with speculative financial instruments are causing these economic crises again and again.”