No person, excluded from the draft NRC published yesterday, will be declared a foreigner as such powers are vested only with tribunals, where one can approach for remedies, a senior Home Ministry official said, after non-inclusion of over 40 lakh people in the complete draft of the NRC created an uproar.

The Supreme Court-monitored updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a "secular exercise" and no particular community was targeted, and all genuine Indian nationals will be given adequate opportunities to prove their citizenship. The NRC is a list of the state's citizens and exclusion of name does not automatically make anyone a foreigner, the official said.