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�Political parties silent on aliens issue�

By Ajit Patowary

GUWAHATI, March 30 - The convener of Prabrajan Virodhi Manch, Upamanyu Hazarika has alleged that the political parties have not been assuming any responsibility on the aliens issue. This is despite their sending representatives to the legislature and forming governments.

Hazarika, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court of India, who was talking to this newspaper here, said the political parties have either relinquished their responsibilities by putting the onus on the court or they are not doing anything on this issue.

Even when courts pass orders, the political parties do not implement them. In this connection, the July 12, 2005 order of the Supreme Court of India {in Case No. Writ Petition (Civil) 131 of 2000 Sarbananda Sonowal versus Union of India and Another} may be referred to, he said.

The Supreme Court in paragraph 38 of the above order said, �This being the situation, there can be no manner of doubt that the State of Assam is facing external aggression and internal disturbance on account of large scale illegal migration of Bangladeshi nationals. It, therefore, becomes the duty of the Union of India to take all measures for protection of the State of Assam from such external aggression and internal disturbance as enjoined in Article 355 of the Constitution��

Article 355 of the Indian Constitution states ��It shall be the duty of the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.�

Even in the case of the observation of the Supreme Court in the same judgement that rejection of 2.83 lakh complaints by the screening committees formed under the now scrapped Illegal Migration (Determination by Tribunals) Act was illegal and required to be processed afresh, has also failed to evoke any positive response from the political parties and the governments of the State and the country as well, Hazarika said.

Prabrajan Virodhi Manch is trying to organise the indigenous peoples of the State on a single platform for the purpose of mounting pressure on the political parties to act on the five issues raised by it.

The five issues include amendment to the Citizenship Act and Section 3 thereof by making the condition of citizenship by birth to be granted only if both parents are citizens effective from March 25, 1971 instead of December 3, 2004, implementation of Clause 5.8 of the Assam Accord by detecting and deporting foreigners, clearing all government land, forest land, grazing land, reserve forest land, etc., from Bangla nationals� encroachment in terms of Clause 10 of the Assam Accord.

Besides, the issues of conducting investigation either by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or any Central investigation agency into the illegalities in the procurement of fabricated identity proofs, involvement of State Government officials and tampering of the original National Register of Citizens (NRC) documents and reservation of land and land transfer and alienation, government jobs and government benefits only for those indigenous persons who were citizens of India in 1951 and their descendants, have also been raised by the Manch as its demands.

The Manch is trying to mobilise the indigenous people to tell the political parties that the indigenous people too have the potential to emerge as �vote banks,� and hence protecting their interests is a basic condition for the survival of the political parties in Assam, Hazarika said.

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