Thread by @rohini_mohan

Reporting in #Assam on the chaos & fear arnd the govt naming ppl foreigners, we ran into this funeral. 93-yr-old Ashrab Ali frm Salausuti, Kamrup, drank pesticide yday, after his #NRC hearing, called coz someone filed an objection against his inclusion in the citizens register

Ashrab Ali's name was in the #NRC draft list. Someone filed an objection against this. When Ashrab's entire family was called for a hearing on May 23. The objector apparently didn't turn up, which is common in #Assam today, even tho 3 lakh objections were filed.

His son said that when the #NRC official took his biometrics, Ashrab was extremely worried this meant that he has "become a foreigner". The citizenship of his 2 sons and daughter depends on his own.

The postmortem report is not out yet, but 2 women from the village said they saw Ashrab fallen near a primary school last evening. A local reporter for News18, Abdul Kalam Azad, shot this video of the purple "furadan", a sort of pesticide, near Ashrab's body

Ashrab's daughter Asiya wails at the funeral. In Bengali, she is chanting repeatedly that she wishes her Baba had never gone to the #NRC hearing.
The citizens register presented hope for #Assam in 2015, to end anti-foreigner anxiety & suspicion, but it's been harrowing for many

It's usually not easy to draw causality from a string of events to a suicide. Ashrab was 93, frail, didn't leave a note, post mortem report's not out. In the past, ppl have exaggerated #NRC suicides. But I met this family, saw documents b4 too many vested interests got involved

I'm making a careful judgement call to believe Ashrab's family, who say he "felt shame" abt the prospect of being a foreigner. Just before him, another man said he almost threw himself on a live electric wire when a tribunal declared him foreigner. Ppl are traumatized #NRC #Assam