India Today – August 19, 2019

quence of that PIL.)

And it’s not just Sarma

who is unhappy. Though

Union home minister and

BJP president Amit Shah

has often said that the NRC

will be extended to all states

in India—the Union home

ministry has issued circulars

to all state governments,

requiring them to build

detention centres to house

illegal immigrants—the BJP

is not happy with the current

state of the NRC in Assam.

Bearing this out, the Assam

government and the Centre,

both run by the BJP, had

requested an extension of

the NRC deadline to carry

out a sample re-verification

of 20 per cent of the names

in the register from districts

bordering Bangladesh, and

a 10 per cent re-verification

from the remaining districts.

The Supreme Court bench,

headed by Chief Justice of

India Ranjan Gogoi, rejected

the plea on the grounds of

Hajela’s submission that 27

per cent of the names in the

draft NRC had already been

examined. The court, how-

ever, extended the deadline

by a month—to August 31—

to carry out quality checks

and tie up loose ends. (The

final NRC was to have been

published on July 31.)

The BJP’s discomfort is

somewhat understandable.

According to several NRC

officials, a large number of

Hindus and tribals have been

excluded from the register,

while most people from

districts near the Bangladesh

border—which are perceived

as being dominated by illegal

Muslim immigrants—have

made their way into the

register. For instance, the ex-

clusion rate in South Salmara

was 7.22 per cent, Dhubri

8.26 per cent and Karimganj

7.67 per cent, while the aver-

age exclusion rate across the

state is 12.15 per cent. “It is

a matter of concern that the

percentage of names excluded

from the draft NRC is lower

in the Bangladesh border

districts compared to the rest

of the state,” says Patowary.

“Even Assamese people

have been excluded from the

NRC,” says state BJP presi-

dent Ranjeet Dass.

That is also why the BJP

is anxious to amend the

Citizenship Act, 1955, to

provide a route to citizenship

for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist,

Jain, Parsi and Christian im-

migrants from Afghanistan,

Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Though the Citizenship

Amendment Bill, intro-

duced in the Lok Sabha in

2016, covers refugees from

the three nations, it was

primarily aimed at protect-

ing Bengali Hindu migrants

from Bangladesh. However,

as the Modi government

could not get the bill passed

in the Rajya Sabha during

its previous term, the bill

lapsed. Prime Minister Modi

and home minister Shah

have, however, reiterated

that the BJP is committed to

having it passed. n

IllustrationbyTANMOYCHAKRABORTY

25.3MILLION

300 MILLION

`11,976CRORE $2.28 54 MINUTES

$116MILLION 100 MILLION 14%

viewers simultane-
ously watched the
India-New Zealand
cricket World Cup
semi-final. Some
100 million watched
India beat Pakistan

monthly users for
Hotstar. Dailyhunt
has 190 million,
TikTok 129 million,
with Amazon Prime
and Netflix both
below 15 million

PwC’s estimate of

the value of India’s

video-streaming

industry by 2023. In

2018, the industry

was valued at

Rs 4,464 crore

Average revenue per

user (on 50.8 million

users) earned by

streaming platforms

in India in 2019.

Expected to decline

to $1.96 in 2023

is how long Indian

consumers spend

each day watching

online videos, says

media agency

Zenith. Up from 9.

minutes in 2013

revenue in the

Indian video

streaming segment

in 2019. The US

leads at $11.4 billion;

China is second

at $1.8 billion

Netflix’s goal for

Indian subscribers.

It currently has

about 4.1 million,

with a total of 148

million globally,

in 190 countries

of Indian users

would pay higher

fees to stream

videos without ads,

says a research

report from

Brightcove Inc

On August 3,

thousands

of Assam

residents

recieved

notifications

from the NRC

asking them

to appear for

re-verification

BIJU BORO/GETTY IMAGES