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Bangla migrants: Gogoi for adopting humanitarian stand

By Staff reporter

GUWAHATI, May 14 � Reiterating the need for adopting a �humanitarian stand� on the migrants compelled to leave Bangladesh owing to persecution, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said that there should be a debate in Parliament on the issue.

�Our stand � both at party and government level � has been to adopt a humanitarian approach vis-�-vis migrants irrespective of their religious status who have fled from Bangladesh due to persecution. Let there be a debate on the issue in Parliament,� Gogoi said at a press conference.

Criticizing BJP national president Nitin Gadkari who had demanded refugee status for the Hindu migrants, Gogoi said that the BJP had a history of raising the matter before elections and conveniently throwing it to the backburner later.

�It is only ahead of elections that the BJP comes up with this demand only to forget immediately after the polls are over. It had been in power at the Centre but did not do anything to grant citizenship status to the Hindu migrants. BJP leaders have a habit of uttering this only in Guwahati,� Gogoi said.

On the contentious issue of �D� voters, the Chief Minister said that it was during the BJP regime that the issue originated, and that the Congress was trying to settle it in the best possible manner.

Gogoi also said that it was then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who mooted the idea of granting work permit to Bangladeshi migrants �but I opposed it as it would further complicate the problem of influx.�

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