GUWAHATI, June 9 � The All Assam Students� Union (AASU) has slammed Congress legislator Abdul Muhib Mazumdar for raising questions on the relevance of the Assam Accord and asserted that the accord would be relevant till the problem of infiltration of foreigners to Assam is solved.
AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said that the Congress party should make its stand clear on the issue and asked whether any legislator can go against the party line on such a serious issue. He said that Mazumdar, known to be the architect of the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, should refrain from giving such statements in future.
Bhattacharya said that after the scrapping of the IMDT Act by the Supreme Court, the architect of the Act has become irrelevant and not the Assam Accord.
AASU president Sankar Prasad Roy pointed out that the accord was signed in presence of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and implementation of the same was a national commitment. Now no one should question its relevance and in fact, it is the duty of the Central and State governments to implement all clauses of the accord to protect Assam and the indigenous people of the State in the face of unabated infiltration of foreign nationals. No one should forget the supreme sacrifices of the martyrs of the Assam agitation and statements questioning the relevance of the accord would not be tolerated.
AASU general secretary, Tapan Kumar Gogoi strongly criticized the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the AIUDF legislators for keeping quiet when Mazumdar made the statement on the accord on the floor of the House.
Gogoi said that the government must announce a specific time frame for implementation of all the clauses of the accord as the people of the State have waited for more than 25 years for the implementation of the same. He said that the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had reportedly told media persons that the statement on the accord was a personal opinion of Mazumdar, but the statement has already been recorded in the proceedings of the Assembly.
