August 31 would have been the last day in office for Kuladhar Saikia, the director general of Assam Police, a Sahitya Akademi award-winner and a Fulbright scholar. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, however, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recommending a three-month extension for Saikia. Modi obliged. Given the tense situation in Assam, a man with Saikia's experience—he is a 1985-batch IPS officer—was required to keep things under control. In an interview with THE WEEK, Saikia spoke about the NRC list, its fallout and future operations in the state. Excerpts:
How many Central Armed Police Forces personnel have you received?
Around 200 companies. There are state police [personnel] as well, whom we used along with Central forces in different parts of the state.
What other measures did you take?
We took up a huge social outreach programme a few weeks before the final list came out. The NRC is a huge exercise and took years [to complete]. So, we extended our reach to community-related programmes, making people aware about the implications of the NRC and dousing the fear. We went to schools and met children and asked them to not get nervous.
Despite that, there are rumours spreading on social media.
We have created a special cell in police offices to check on social media. We have deployed forces for that. Rumours and fake posts are being severely dealt with.
People are communally divided over the NRC.
We have alerted all police stations about this. All superintendents and commissioners of police have been asked to deal with it firmly. In fact, one of the subjects in our social outreach programme was that. We kept ourselves prepared well in advance.
Muslim groups had threatened armed struggle, if people were driven out or arrested.
The government has never said that. We are not at all scared. Under no circumstance will we allow an armed struggle. We will never allow peace in Assam to be broken.
Civil society groups are unhappy and might take to the streets.
We held a meeting with various superintendents and commissioners of police on this. We would adopt different measures to deal with it. Let it remain a secret.
The government says no foreigners would be arrested.
It is a political decision. I have nothing to say about it.
There is fear that people excluded from the list could sell their properties and move out of Assam to other states.
On August 23, all northeastern directors general of police held a meeting in Imphal to deal with this kind of interstate migration post NRC. We have put extra police forces on the border of each state. Borders are almost sealed. Security has been intensified and movement of people is being monitored. All state police are in touch.
What is the Union home ministry's role?
The home ministry is constantly in touch with us. They have supplied forces and are ready to provide more, if required.
The final NRC list is out, but many related cases are still going on. Will the government stop tracing foreigners?
Not at all. Checking and detection of foreigners is a constant work that the border police will continue to do. We are in touch with the Border Security Force and the border is being monitored closely. If the border is transgressed or we get information of infiltration post 1971, the police will definitely act.