GUWAHATI, March 8 - With the Government of India announcing that there is no plan to sign another agreement with Bangladesh for repatriation of Bangladeshi nationals, the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) today asked the Centre to clarify the measures taken to deport the persons detected as foreigners. The AASU also alleged that the Government is also not implementing the directive of the Supreme Court in this regard.
The Union Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju yesterday informed the Parliament that the Government has no plan to sign another agreement with Bangladesh for pushing back the Bangladeshi nationals. Strongly reacting to the Union Minister�s statement, AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said, �if the Government of India is not keen on signing an agreement or a repatriation treaty, it should clarify how it proposes to deport the illegal migrants staying in the country.�
Talking to The Assam Tribune, Bhattacharya said that the Government of India has also shown disrespect to the directive of the Supreme Court on the issue of deportation of Bangladeshi nationals staying in India. The Supreme Court had directed the Government to have dialogue with Bangladesh Government to streamline the process of deportation of Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally in India. The Centre should now clarify what steps it is taking to implement the directive of the Supreme Court, Bhattacharya said.
The AASU Chief Adviser said that even after more than 32 years of signing of the Assam Accord, the Government has not been able to chalk out a mechanism to deport the illegal migrants and majority of the persons declared as foreign nationals by the Foreigners� Tribunals are reported missing. He demanded that the Government should announce a date from which it would effectively start the process of deporting the foreigners irrespective of their religion.
Bhattacharya further said that after the completion of the process of updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the persons who are not Indian citizens should be deported and the Government of India must take up the matter with Bangladesh Government immediately. Assam is not the dumping ground of illegal migrants and the AASU would never allow any move to divide the foreigners on the basis of their religion, he asserted. He also pointed out that before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Narendra Modi had promised to deport all the Bangladeshi nationals living illegally in India and he failed miserably to fulfil his promise after becoming the Prime Minister.
