DIBRUGARH, Aug 20 � President Pranab Mukherjee�s statement that Assam Accord ought to be relooked and adapted in present conditions, has drawn bitter criticism from various quarters in the State, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanding retraction of the statement. Mukherjee made the statement while referring to the ongoing violence in BTAD during his address to the nation on the eve of Independence Day.
�We are already suffering due to the non-implementation of the Assam Accord and revisit of the same, as proposed by the President cannot be accepted by the Assamese society,� BJP national general secretary Sarbananda Sonowal said. Addressing mediapersons at the BJP office here, Sonowal, a former AASU leader and ex-Dibrugarh MP said that under no circumstances, Assamese society would think to relook at the Assam Accord. He has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a representative from Assam and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to demand withdrawal of the statement from the President.
�After six years of rigorous movement and loss of 855 precious lives, we expect that the Accord signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Agitation in 1985 be implemented�, Sonowal said. The BJP leader who was instrumental in getting the IM (DT) Act scrapped said that the State had waited for 27 years and cannot be fooled further.
Sonowal said that the President was still functioning as a Congress leader.
The BJP leader further demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh make a statement during the ongoing Parliament session about how and when the Assam Accord would be implemented, when the sealing of Assam border would be complete, when the updating the NRC would be over and announce when the detection and deportation process of illegal Bangladeshis would be complete.
