There has been a huge change in the cultural and linguistic identity of some areas due to illegal immigration, resulting in an adverse impact on local people's livelihood and employment. We will expeditiously complete the National Register of Citizens process in these areas on priority. In future we will implement the NRC in a phased manner in other parts of the country.

The promise had two parts: complete the NRC "expeditiously" in the areas affected by illegal immigration, and in future extend it "in a phased manner in other parts of the country". Neither was completed.

Assam. The list was published on 31 August 2019, four months into the term. It excluded 19,06,657 people — the Ministry of Home Affairs' own figure, given to the Lok Sabha in February 2021. But publication is not completion, and the ministry's answer is careful about why. The Supreme Court "has directed the State Coordinator to enact an appropriate security regime on lines similar to the security regime provided for AADHAR data and only thereafter the list of inclusions and exclusions shall be made available to the State Government, Central Government and Registrar General of India." Until that happens the register does not reach the authority that would notify it. It has not been notified.

The practical consequence for the people excluded is more serious than the administrative one. To challenge exclusion at a Foreigners Tribunal, a person needs a rejection slip stating the reasons. In February 2021 the ministry said that "Due to outbreak of Covid-19 and flood situation, the process of issuing rejection slips has been postponed." Nearly two million people were left off a list and, eighteen months later, still could not be told why or begin an appeal. The appeal window had been extended from sixty to a hundred and twenty days and 200 appellate tribunals added to the existing 100 — machinery built for a process that had not started.

It is also worth being accurate about whose exercise this was. The Assam NRC ran under the Supreme Court's supervision from 2013, before this government took office and before this promise. The ministry's answers consistently attribute the publication to "the direction of the Hon'ble Supreme Court". A manifesto promise to "expeditiously complete" a court-monitored process is a promise to help it finish; on the ministry's own account it has not finished.

The rest of the country. In November 2021, halfway through the term, the Ministry of Home Affairs stated flatly: "Till now, the Government has not taken any decision to prepare National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) at the National level." No phased rollout was begun, and no document we hold records one since. This is a straightforward non-delivery, and it is the limb that drew the largest public reaction when the promise was made.

Recorded as partly delivered — a list was published and nothing after it was — and the claim as not supported: the manifesto asserted a process would be expeditiously completed and then extended, and on the government's own statements it was neither.