New Delhi: People left off the NRC are not "stateless" and will continue to enjoy all the rights as before till they exhaust all the remedies available under the law, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Sunday.
It said exclusion from the NRC has no implication on the rights of an individual resident in Assam and that they will not be deprived of any rights or entitlements which they have enjoyed before.
The MEA's comments came in the wake of commentaries in sections of the foreign media about certain aspects of the final NRC which it said are "incorrect".
Out of 3.3 crore applicants, over 19 lakh people were excluded from the final NRC published on Saturday. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday expressed shock over the exclusion of one lakh Gorkha people from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam. P6