GUWAHATI: The
Assam Congress has spoken out against the Centre’s proposed Citizenship (amendment) Bill. Interestingly, some BJP allies too have also voiced their disapproval of the bill.
Leader of opposition in the state assembly Debabrata Saikia of Congress said that his party is ready to do anything to save the Assam Accord that was signed between All Assam Students Union, centre and state government in 1985 under then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi that brought an end to a six-year-long anti-foreigners’ movement.
The accord, that has been widely accepted, has set midnight of March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date to distinguish between an illegal foreigner and an Indian citizen. The centre’s bill now proposes to make Hindu infiltrators who have entered India till December, 2014 eligible for citizenship.
“The Citizenship (amendment) bill will kill the Assam Accord and Congress will make every attempt to save the Accord. We are open for any kind of political arrangement for an alternative government if that is required to save the Accord. Rahul Gandhi has told us that we should be ready for any kind of sacrifice like we did in Karnataka,” Saikia told TOI.
With just 26 members in the house of 126 the odds are heavily against Congress at the moment, but the party thinks that if BJP’s ally, AGP, which has 14 members and is opposing the bill in favour of the Accord can take the lead, the new political arrangement can be in place. Congress is ready to sacrifice its anti-AIUDF stand and join hands with Badruddin Ajmal, who has 13 members and is confident that its former ally for 10 years, Bodoland People’s Front, which has 12 members can be weaned away easily to reach 65, way beyond the half way mark of 63. BJP with 60 members does not have a simple majority in the house on its own.
Congress has projected AGP as the new leading party going by its historical connection with the Accord. The regional party was born out of the AASU-led anti-foreigners’ movement that was led by former AASU president
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who later became AGP’s first chief minister.
Mahanta when contacted, also vowed to fight for the accord in which he is one of the signatories as AASU president. “The bill violates the Assam Accord. We have decided to fight to save the accord till the last… till the bill is brought to the parliament. If the bill is passed we all will resign and there is no difference of opinion on this within AGP,” Mahanta said. He added, “Nothing is impossible in politics.”
Congress’s old war horse and former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who was the driving force behind getting Rajiv Gandhi to offer the accord to AASU, told TOI, “We can never allow anyone to nullify the Assam Accord. The Citizenship bill if passed by parliament will make the accord null and void and we will do whatever it takes to stop that from happening.”
All eyes are now on the 2019 Lok Sabha election because that is when BJP would be looking to increase its tally in the state from seven in 2014 and its state allies would play their cards.
Chief minister
Sarbananda Sonowal, who completed his two years in office on Thursday sought to suppress the growing differences between BJP and AGP over the bill and said that all differences would be sorted out through dialogues.
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