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NDA partners hit out at Cong after WikiLeaks disclosures

By Pranjal Bhuyan

GUWAHATI, Aug 5 - The ruling NDA partners said the latest disclosures from the WikiLeaks cables clearly prove that the Congress has always tried to protect the interests of illegal immigrants in Assam, even as the grand old party dismissed the tranche as �fabricated� and false.

The reactions came following the release of the latest tranche of WikiLeaks documents which state that the then Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, was planning to bring in an alternative law in place of the IM(DT) Act, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court in 2005.

�The Congress party�s agenda has always been to win power at any cost. It has never been concerned about the Assamese people, Assam or India,� State BJP general secretary and spokesperson Rupam Goswami told The Assam Tribune today. He said that the Congress party has always acted as the patron of illegal immigrants.

�Congress leaders always speak in divergent voices. Everybody knows what former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once said in Parliament regarding minority refugees from neighbouring countries. Even now, the Congress leaders speak in different voices regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in the Barak Valley and the Brahmaputra Valley,� Goswami added.

NDA partner Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) said that Congress had been instrumental in bringing the IM(DT) Act in 1983.

�The votes of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants always played a major role in the Congress party�s electoral success. The Congress has always encouraged illegal immigrants and used them as a vote bank. One does not need any WikiLeaks or any other publications to realise that,� AGP general secretary Manoj Saikia said.

He added, �The Congress has always played a dual role. The party�s leaders speak in different voices to confuse the people. Even now the Congress party is actively attempting to sabotage the NRC process.�

However, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said that the matter should not be politicised.

�All these years we never heard that the then Congress Government had planned to bring in an alternative law in place of the IM(DT) Act. But I have not seen the latest news. These days a lot of rumours are floating around, including on the NRC issue. Who knows that some conspiracy may be afoot. Now the priority should be to ensure that the NRC update process is error-free so that the names of no genuine Indian citizens are left out of the final document,� said Deben Bhattacharya, State secretary of the CPI (M).

On the other hand, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) said that the then Tarun Gogoi Government had a major role to play in scrapping the IM(DT) Act.

�The Gogoi Government did not fight the matter seriously in the Supreme Court. The affidavit filed by the Government was very weak. The Gogoi Government played an indirect role in getting the Act scrapped,� said Aminul Islam, AIUDF general secretary.

Meanwhile, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has dismissed the latest WikiLeaks cables as �fabricated�.

�This (the latest tranche) is totally fabricated. WikiLeaks are anyway not reliable. They circulate a lot of fake stories. There was never any attempt to bring in a substitute law to replace the IM(DT) Act. This is all totally unfounded, baseless and fabricated,� APCC vice president Pradyut Bordoloi told this newspaper.

He added, �The BJP is now trying to play up the issue. Despite the earlier Panama Papers leakage, this Government has refused to take any action, even though in Pakistan many senior leaders, including a former Prime Minister, are now behind bars. This shows the double standards of the BJP.�

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