GUWAHATI, March 22 - Former Chief Minister and senior Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today made an appeal to all those organisations championing the causes of the State�s indigenous people to unitedly resist the Union government�s move to amend the Citizenship Act of the country for the greater interest of the indigenous peoples of the State.
Talking to this newspaper, Mahanta warned that if these organisations fail to resist the move, the indigenous people of the State would face a bleak future.
Describing the provisions of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 contrary to the very essence of the Indian Constitution and a betrayal to the people of Assam, the former Chief Minister said that if enacted, this piece of legislation will also infringe the provisions of the 1985 Assam Accord.
He alleged that time and again Assam has been subjected to gross injustice. During the partition of the country, Sylhet and Rangpur, which opted to remain with Assam, were ceded to benefit East Pakistan. The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, now scrapped, was also imposed on it only to make the determination and deportation of illegal Bangla migrants a tough proposition, he said.
Assam is the worst victim of the 1947 partition of the country. It lost Sylhet, Rangpur and Cooch Behar, etc., areas and was heavily burdened with innumerable refugees, which had an adverse impact on the society.
The spectacular win of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates from the State during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the victory of the BJP-AGP alliance during the last Assembly elections were possible because of the high expectations of the indigenous peoples from the BJP and the alliance. He also maintained that compared to the issues of distribution of ministerial portfolios and chairmanship of the public sector undertakings, safeguarding the interest of the State and its indigenous people is more important.
