‘Too late to acknowledge Assam’s demographic crisis’: AASU hits out at PM Modi

Guwahati, Aug 17: The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of acknowledging the dangers of demographic change in Assam far too late, while doing little to address the decades-old problem of illegal infiltration.

Reacting to the Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech from the Red Fort, in which he admitted that border States are facing identity crises due to migration of illegal foreigners, AASU said the people of Assam have been warning about this for over four decades and have now been proven right.

“Every word the people of Assam said since the Assam Movement has come true. But the Prime Minister has taken 11 years in power to realize it. A mere acknowledgment is not enough – concrete steps must follow,” AASU president Utpal Sharma and general secretary Samiran Phukan said.

AASU recalled that during the 2014 election campaign, Modi had promised to deport illegal foreigners.

“That assurance never translated into action. Had he acted decisively right after assuming office, Assam and the Northeast would not have suffered this long from the threat of illegal migration,” the student leaders said.

AASU also lashed out at the Centre for imposing the Citizenship Amendment Act on Assam, calling it an ‘anti-indigenous and harmful law.’

They pointed out that while Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, 98 per cent of Meghalaya, 70 per cent of Tripura, and eight districts of Assam were exempted, the rest of Assam has been left to bear its brunt. The student body demanded that CAA be completely withdrawn from all 27 remaining districts of the State.

The students’ leaders underlined how illegal migrants from Bangladesh have occupied tribal belts and blocks, grabbed sattra land, government land, and forests, and have already influenced Assam’s language, culture, economy, and politics.

“The demographic invasion has stripped indigenous people of security, rights, and control over their own land. The Prime Minister’s words only prove that Assam’s fears were always true,” the AASU leaders asserted.

AASU demanded urgent and decisive steps including time-bound implementation of every clause of the Assam Accord, sealing of the India-Bangladesh border with wartime urgency and shoot-on-sight orders, full implementation of Justice Biplab Kumar Sharma Committee’s recommendations for constitutional safeguards under Clause 6, exclusion of Assam from the ambit of CAA, and a special drive to root out illegal Bangladeshis and fundamentalist elements from the State.

By

Staff Reporter