GUWAHATI, Aug 2 - Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia today said that contrary to some vested interests accusing the Congress Party of double standards regarding the illegal migrants issue and the NRC update process, it is actually the BJP and the Trinamool Congress that are indulging in duplicity.
Saikia said the Union Home Minister had recently assured that those excluded from the final draft of the NRC would be treated with compassion and given every opportunity to establish their citizenship, while the BJP�s national president Amit Shah labelled all 40 lakh people who have been excluded from the final draft of the NRC as �ghuspethia� or illegal infiltrators.
�This kind of contradictory stands taken by two senior leaders of the same party represents most glaring double standards,� he said.
Saikia added, �Similarly, the Chief Minister of West Bengal and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has created a furore over alleged persecution of Bengali-speaking people in particular and Indians from other states in general during the NRC update process. She has shed crocodile�s tears while offering to rehabilitate in West Bengal those people who will be allegedly evicted from Assam. However, the same Banerjee had created an unsavoury scene in the Lok Sabha on August 4, 2005, while highlighting the threat posed to West Bengal by illegal migrants from Bangladesh and had even gone to the extent of flinging a sheaf of papers at the Chair.
�Now when Assam is trying to resolve the problem of illegal migrants by updating the NRC, Banerjee is trying to sabotage the process by making wild allegations and threats of civil war. This is a classic example of double standards.�
