Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday questioned the Centre on the National Register of Citizens, which excluded 19 lakh people who failed to prove their citizenship. The former Union minister, who is currently lodged in Tihar jail in a corruption case, asked how the government planned to deal with those declared “non-citizens”.

“If Bangladesh has been assured that the NRC process will not affect Bangladesh, how will the Indian state deal with the 19 lakh persons?” Chidambaram’s tweet, posted by his family on his behalf, said.

Last week, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was on a visit to India, had said that she was satisfied with Modi’s assurance that the NRC exercise would not impact her country.

Chidambaram also asked how long the 19 lakh people would continue to live amid “uncertainty, anxiety and denial of civic and human rights”.

The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested the Congress leader in August after finding alleged irregularities in the foreign direct investment clearance granted to INX Media by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board in 2007. Chidambaram was the finance minister at the time.

The INX Media case is also being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate, which filed a money laundering case in May 2017 against Karti Chidambaram, INX Media, and Indrani and Peter Mukerjea. The former owners of INX Media reportedly told the investigating agencies that Chidambaram had asked them to meet his son and help him with his business.

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