GUWAHATI, Aug 12 � The 25-year-long frustra-tion concerning the implementation of the Assam Accord on deportation of foreign nationals and providing constitutional safeguard to the indigenous peoples, has made some of the leading Assamese intellectuals question the very locus standi of the Accord.
In fact, this Accord is not a valid legal document, as, it is not endorsed by the Parliament of the country. Again, it has created a separate cut-off date of March 14, 1971for Assam so far as detection and deportation of the foreigners are concerned and it indirectly gave a legislation like the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act (IM-DT Act) a legal validity.
This was the observation made by veteran journalist Dhirendra Nath Bezboruah while speaking at a two-day conclave on influx of Bangla nationals, organized by the North East Policy Institute (NIP) here today. He was speaking on the Assam Accord.
Bezboruah, in his address said that the Indian constitution has not given an accord the status of a piece of legislation. Even the much talked about Indira-Mujib Pact failed to attain the status of a legislation, because of its not being endorsed by the Indian Parliament.
It needs mention here that Indira-Mujib Pact was very often mentioned by the Central Government to suggest its international obligations in matters of those coming from erstwhile East Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh, prior to the freedom struggle of Bangladesh.
The Assam Accord postponed the cut-off year for detection, determination and deportation of the foreign nationals by 23 years. For the rest of India, the cut-off date for the purpose is July 19, 1948. No where in the world, except in Assam, two dates for detection, determination and deportation of foreign nationals exist, claimed Bezboruah, who said that he had examined the immigration laws of 40 countries.
The expulsion process in Assam has been so formulated that onus of proof here rests on the complainants, where as, in other parts of the globe, the onus of proof lies on the person concerned. Moreover, the IM (DT) tribunals were run by the �retired and tired� judges.
The IM (DT) Act might have been got repealed by the Supreme Court of India several years back had there been some serious efforts in to this regard. But due to the lack of such efforts, the Act was repealed by the Supreme Court after long 22 years of its enactment, Bezboruah said.
The Accord led to the creation of a new department� the Assam Accord Implementation Department. But there is no remarkable success in implementing the Accord. He also wanted to know how much of the Accord was implemented by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) �led Government in the State.
Addressing the function, chaired by journalist Mrinal Talukdar, former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said that though the AGP-led Government in the State sincerely tried to solve the problem of influx from across the border, the Union Government, particularly the Union Home Ministry, which was made the nodal Ministry in implementing the Assam Accord, was not sincere.
Because of such an attitude on the part of the Union Government, the entire process of sealing the Indo-Bangla border slowed down, the IM (DT) Act remained to be scrapped for a long period and detection and deportation of the illegal migrants were also not done sincerely.
For updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) the Central Government did not give its approval when the AGP was in power in Assam, he alleged. Moreover, he said, adequate money for implementing the Assam Accord was also not released by the Central Government.
The AGP Government could ensure establishment of the refinery and put an arrangement in place for extending Central Government�s financial assistance to Assam in the form of 90 per cent grant and 10 per cent loan, during the tenures of the VP Singh Government and HD Deve Gowda Government at the Centre, Mahanta said.
He called for boldness on the part of the Indian Government in matters of putting a legal mechanism in place for deportation of the Bangla nationals.
Delivering the keynote address in the function, former Secretary, Security, Government of India, N C Padhi said that the cut-off year of 1971 was incorporated in the Assam Accord in view of the facts that prior to 1971, bulk of refugees who came to India were Hindus. They were 75 lakh in total and they went to West Bengal as there was linguistic problem in Assam.
But during the period between 1971-�91around six million people from Bangladesh came to India following the military rulers� encouragement to large scale exodus to India.
According to the estimates made by the Union Government through a comparative study of the census reports of India and Bangladesh between 1941 and 1991, it is seen that around three million Bangla nationals could enter Assam and 11 million Bangla nationals could enter India all together, Padhi said.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj is expected to address the valedictory function of the two-day conclave tomorrow.
