GUWAHATI, July 21 � The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Assam Pradesh unit today accused the Congress party and Assam Accord Implementation Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of engaging in the worst kind of communal politics.
Talking to media persons at a press conference in the city today, BJP, Assam Pradesh general secretary Prodyut Bora said that after more than 25 years of the Assam Accord and 2 years of the tripartite agreement between the Prime Minister, the State government and AASU, even the pilot phase of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) update process is yet to be completed.
He asked the government to come clear on which side of the fence it was on � was it on the side of suspected infiltrators or was it with the people of the State.
It needs to be mentioned here that seeing the delay in the implementation of the Assam Accord, the AASU had entered into a MoU with the Central and State governments on May 5 2005, that stipulated that the NRC would be updated within 2 years. When nothing happened, another tripartite meeting took place on April 22, 2009. Following this, the government had decided that a pilot project on NRC would be carried out in the Chaygaon Revenue Circle of Kamrup District and Barpeta Revenue Circle of Barpeta District. But it had to be suspended on account of violent protest.
�The BJP believes that there was a conspiracy from the very outset to ensure that the pilot project did not take off. Consider these extraordinary cases. While the pilot project should have started on June 1 2010, the DC�s Office in Barpeta got the information only on June 3 2010. Why did it take so long for the order to reach the district? asked Bora.
Bora further said that the purpose of any pilot project is to streamline the operational process and iron out any creases and as such it could have been initiated from any district in upper Assam, where there would have been little controversy.
�While the pilot project started in both the revenue circles simultaneously, why was the local trouble in one circle used as a pretext to shut down the pilot project in the other district as well?� Bora wondered. He regretted that the pilot project was not restarted even after a year.
Bora also regretted that instead of bringing to book the perpetrators of the violence in Barpeta town on July 21 that led to the suspension of the pilot project, and where more than 10 policemen were injured and more than 20 vehicles damaged, the State government was rolling out a red carpet to AAMSU.
Bora said that NRC implementation would be a prime agenda for the BJP and that it is going to draw up an agitational programme demanding resumption of the pilot project.
To start with, the party is organising a protest programme on July 25.
