AASU hits out at Centre, Assam govt for ‘utter failure’ to implement Assam Accord

Guwahati, Aug 14: The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has hit out at both the Centre and the State government, accusing them of “utter failure” in implementing the Assam Accord even after 40 years of its signing on August 15, 1985.

The student body warned that the non-implementation of the Accord has pushed Assam into a “deep crisis” that threatens the very identity, rights, and existence of its indigenous people.

The Accord, which marked the culmination of the six-year-long Assam Movement against illegal migration, was intended to address the issue of foreign nationals in the State. As the agreement turns 40 this year, AASU leaders said that not a single core provision has been fully implemented.

“Illegal foreigners have not been identified, their names have not been deleted from electoral rolls, they have not been deported, and the India-Bangladesh border through which they continue to enter Assam remains unsealed,” said AASU president Utpal Sharma and general secretary Samiran Phukan here today.

“The inability to seal the border for 40 years is an inexcusable crime of all those who have been in power for all these years,” the AASU leaders asserted.

The union accused successive governments of allowing the situation to worsen, claiming that illegal migrants have entered tribal belts and blocks, encroached upon satra land, forest reserves, and agricultural fields, altered the State’s demographic profile, and endangered the political rights of the indigenous Assamese.

AASU leaders warned that alongside the influx of illegal Bangladeshis, fundamentalist elements are also entering the State, posing a wider threat to the national security.

Referring to the Assam Movement’s call of “Save Assam Today to Save India Tomorrow”, AASU said the failure to act on the people’s warnings has allowed illegal migrants to spread across the country, forcing the Central government to direct all State governments recently to initiate deportation measures.

“In 46 years – six years of the movement plus 40 years since the Accord was signed – the indigenous people of Assam have been struggling relentlessly to protect their identity and dominance in their own land,” the students’ body said.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Accord, AASU will organise candlelight tributes on August 15 across the State. In every district headquarters, 860 lamps will be lit in the memory of 860 martyrs of the Assam Movement. Prominent personalities linked to the movement will address gatherings, and the AASU will take a pledge to continue its fight until the issue of illegal migration is permanently resolved through the full implementation of the Accord.

The organisation reiterated its key demands – the implementation of every clause of the Assam Accord within a fixed timeframe, sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border on a war footing, implementation of all the recommendations of Justice Biplab Kumar Sharma Committee formed under Clause 6 to provide constitutional safeguards to indigenous people, accurate updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and complete withdrawal of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) from Assam.

“The governments at the Centre and the State have no more time to waste,” AASU chief advisor Dr Samujjal Bhattacharyya warned. “War-footing measures are the only way to save Assam from irreversible damage,” he added.

Staff Reporter