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Clarify stand on illegal Bangladeshis, AASU tells Sonowal

By R Dutta Choudhury

GUWAHATI, Dec 29 - Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal should clarify whether he is in favour of indigenous people of the State or illegal Bangladeshi nationals, demands the All Assam Students Union (AASU). The student body also warned that the Central and State governments would be responsible if the situation in Assam deteriorates because of the Centre�s move to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in Parliament.

Talking to The Assam Tribune, AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said that Sonowal gained the fame of a �national hero� after he fought against the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act and now he is not speaking out against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which would harm the interests of the indigenous people of the State. He also pointed out that despite running a government with support of the BJP, Meghalaya Chief Minister dared to adopt a Cabinet decision opposing the Bill, but unfortunately, the Assam Chief Minister failed to speak out against the Bill.

Bhattacharya, who is also the adviser of the North East Students Organisation (NESO), alleged that the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) formed to examine the Bill failed to function in an impartial manner. �The JPC only visited Guwahati and Silchar in Assam and Shillong in Meghalaya. The JPC members should have visited other parts of Assam to know the feelings of the people. The JPC should have also visited all the states of the region. But the committee failed to do so and there is no way an impartial decision can be taken without knowing the feelings of the people,� he added.

The AASU chief adviser said that if the JPC submits a report without taking into account the feelings of the people, it would be an incomplete report. He said that the people of the Northeast would not accept an incomplete report from the JPC and if the Centre imposes the Bill by going against the wishes of the people, the Central and State governments would be responsible for the consequences.

Bhattacharya alleged that the Central and State governments hatched a conspiracy to derail the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) only to protect the vote bank of Bangladeshi nationals. The Bill would not only derail the NRC update process, but would also violate the Assam Accord, he pointed out. He said that the Bill would go against the spirit of the Constitution of India.

The AASU chief adviser further pointed out that in its vision document released before the 2016 State Assembly elections, the BJP had promised to implement the Assam Accord, but immediately after coming to power, the party broke its promise by bringing in the Bill. He also said that in the election campaigns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to detect and deport all the Bangladeshi nationals staying illegally in India and he never said that foreigners would be differentiated on the basis of religion to protect the vote bank of the BJP.

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