SILCHAR, May 24 � The Citizens� Rights Preservation Committee (CRPC), Assam has strongly condemned the unlawful and unethical comment of the All India Congress Committee chief spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee, who had said �the victims of partition of undivided India should not be given the status of citizenship.�
Nripendra Chandra Saha, president of CRPC, Assam said that the partition of undivided India is a black chapters in Indian history, and so the victims of partition should be given the status of citizenship without any cutoff year. The leaders of CRPC reminded that the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declared to his countrymen that �There is no doubt, of course, that those displaced persons who have come to settle in India are bound to have their citizenship. If the law is inadequate in this respect, the law has to be changed.�
Citing references of leaders, the CRPC leaders mentioned that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had said on August 15, 1947, �Our hearts, few can realize the bitterness and sorrow which the partition has brought to those who cherished unity but lived to fashion its details. But let not our brethren across the border feel that they are neglected or forgotten. Their welfare will claim our vigilance and we shall follow with abiding interest their future in full hope and confidence to our country.� Moreover, similar promises were made by Mahatma Gandhi and other national leaders.
It is needless to say that the three major agreements viz., Nehru-Liaqat Ali Pact 1950 and Indira-Mujib Pact 1972 are directly concerned with migrants and displaced persons from erstwhile East Pakistan. The leaders of CRPC claimed that the refugees from Sind in Pakistan coming even after 1971 were granted citizenship by the Janata Government at the Centre in 1978 of which Atal Vehari Bajpayee was the Foreign Minister and Lal Krishna Advani was the Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
Bidhayak Das Purkayastha, general secretary, CRPC, Assam said that the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi also made similar promises on several occasions before the last Lok Sabha polls and reiterated the same after assuming power at the Centre. Even the present Tarun Gogoi Government took a Cabinet decision to consider the issue of citizenship of the partition victims on humanitarian ground and submitted their proposal to the Central Government for a final decision.
The CRPC through a press release issued to the media reminded Sharmistha Mukherjee that her father, honourable President, Pranab Mukherjee on several occasions attended the conventions of CRPC at Guwahati and Silchar and expressed his full support and solidarity to the issue of granting citizenship status to the partition victims without any cutoff year.
�Before dishing out such a statement, Mukherjee should have consulted her party, have a thorough knowledge of the burning problems of Assam and its political background, the commitment made by the first Prime Minister and other national leaders of the Congress party. Before politicising the issue, she should have taken lessons from her learned father, who is a man of abundant and immense knowledge of Assam politics,� Das Purkayastha maintained.
SILCHAR, May 24 � The Citizens� Rights Preservation Committee (CRPC), Assam has strongly condemned the unlawful and unethical comment of the All India Congress Committee chief spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee, who had said �the victims of partition of undivided India should not be given the status of citizenship.�
Nripendra Chandra Saha, president of CRPC, Assam said that the partition of undivided India is a black chapters in Indian history, and so the victims of partition should be given the status of citizenship without any cutoff year. The leaders of CRPC reminded that the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declared to his countrymen that �There is no doubt, of course, that those displaced persons who have come to settle in India are bound to have their citizenship. If the law is inadequate in this respect, the law has to be changed.�
Citing references of leaders, the CRPC leaders mentioned that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had said on August 15, 1947, �Our hearts, few can realize the bitterness and sorrow which the partition has brought to those who cherished unity but lived to fashion its details. But let not our brethren across the border feel that they are neglected or forgotten. Their welfare will claim our vigilance and we shall follow with abiding interest their future in full hope and confidence to our country.� Moreover, similar promises were made by Mahatma Gandhi and other national leaders.
It is needless to say that the three major agreements viz., Nehru-Liaqat Ali Pact 1950 and Indira-Mujib Pact 1972 are directly concerned with migrants and displaced persons from erstwhile East Pakistan. The leaders of CRPC claimed that the refugees from Sind in Pakistan coming even after 1971 were granted citizenship by the Janata Government at the Centre in 1978 of which Atal Vehari Bajpayee was the Foreign Minister and Lal Krishna Advani was the Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
Bidhayak Das Purkayastha, general secretary, CRPC, Assam said that the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi also made similar promises on several occasions before the last Lok Sabha polls and reiterated the same after assuming power at the Centre. Even the present Tarun Gogoi Government took a Cabinet decision to consider the issue of citizenship of the partition victims on humanitarian ground and submitted their proposal to the Central Government for a final decision.
The CRPC through a press release issued to the media reminded Sharmistha Mukherjee that her father, honourable President, Pranab Mukherjee on several occasions attended the conventions of CRPC at Guwahati and Silchar and expressed his full support and solidarity to the issue of granting citizenship status to the partition victims without any cutoff year.
�Before dishing out such a statement, Mukherjee should have consulted her party, have a thorough knowledge of the burning problems of Assam and its political background, the commitment made by the first Prime Minister and other national leaders of the Congress party. Before politicising the issue, she should have taken lessons from her learned father, who is a man of abundant and immense knowledge of Assam politics,� Das Purkayastha maintained.
