2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(1) provide documentation about their lineage so those who are not able to prove their citizenship will be deemed illegal foreigners in India and will be denied their citizenship rights. Assamese residents subject to this citizenship determination procedure can appeal to specially formed courts known as ‘Foreigner Tribunals’ (‘FT’) as well as, theoretically, the High Court and the Supreme Court of India. 88 However, the validity of the process by which these FT engage cases is a topic of contemporary debate, and Assam residents face a potentially long and exhausting appeals process. 89 Upon them weighs the consideration of whether they would be able to bear the inherent charges of appeals in case they lose their case, the possibility of being detained in detention centres located in prisons indefinitely or even be deportation from the country. 90 While this unilateral act has not yet rendered millions of Muslim residents of Assam stateless — it definitely has the potential to and also to inflame Hindu– Muslim tensions in the region, which may cause regional instability and may even lead to radicalisation. The arbitrary action of the Indian (Hindu) government is often compared to the approach of the Buddhist campaign against the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, forcing more than 700,000 to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring countries. 91 Likewise, in Hindu-majority India, Muslim minorities have faced a series of attacks since the current government entered into power. In the Indian context it must be noted that ethnic discrimination has a historical background that indicates illegal migration as one of the key factors of ethnic conflicts and political unrest in the State of Assam (neighbouring with Bangladesh) for decades, as the Hindu–Assamese fear of being dominated by ‘foreigners’ is rooted very deeply. 92 Similar to the Myanmar scenario, high-ranking Indian government officials began to publicly make hateful comments on Bengali and other (mostly Muslim) minorities living in the State of Assam in India. As mentioned, in India illegal migration has been a contributing factor to ethnic conflict and political unrest in the State of Assam for decades, stemming from the Assamese fear of being dominated by foreigners. 93 With the rise of the BJP currently in power, these negative sentiments have been amplified. The situation of being left out of the NRC has been affecting those concerned very heavily, also leading to the suicide of some of those who have been excluded from the published list of citizens, fearing indefinite detention, deportation from India and consequences of statelessness. 94 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 Talha Abdul Rahman, ‘Identifying the “Outsider”: An Assessment of Foreigner Tribunals in the Indian State of Assam’ (2020) 2(1) Statelessness & Citizenship Review 112. ibid. ibid. Debasish Roy Chowdhury, ‘Abandoned in Assam: India Creates Its Own Rohingya, and Calls Them “Bangladeshi”’, South China Morning Post (online, 23 August 2019) <https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3024155/assam-edge-indias-rohingyamoment-threatens-millions-modis-hindu>. Sandhya Goswami, ‘Ethnic Conflict in Assam’ (2001) 62(1) The Indian Journal of Political Science 123–37; Pranati Datta, ‘Push–Pull Factors of Undocumented Migration From Bangladesh to West Bengal: A Perception Study’ [2004] (June) The Qualitative Report <http://library.isical.ac.in:8080/jspui/bitstream/10263/2930/1/Binder1.pdf>. ibid. Subir Bhaumik, ‘Assam NRC: Are India’s ‘Unwanted People’ Being Driven to Suicide’, BBC (online, 28 June 2019) <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-48754802>; ‘Shoot the Traitors’ — Discrimination against Muslims under India’s New Citizenship Policy (Report, Human Rights Watch 9 April 2020) <https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/04/10/shoottraitors/discrimination-against-muslims-under-indias-new-citizenship-policy>. 20