About the Assam Accord

Days before the first phase of the Assembly elections, Atul Bora, president of the AGP was asked questions on his party’s stand on the issue of illegal migrants. He said his party wanted the detection and deportation of illegal infiltrators to be done on the basis of the Assam Accord. He said the Assam Accord should be implemented within a stipulated time, and that the AGP would be accountable to the people of the State to seal the intertiol border, besides taking other stringent measures. He said the AGP also wanted the tiol Register of Citizens (NRC) to be free of the mes of foreigners, and when this becomes a reality, the task of detection and deportation of foreigners would be easier. He said that if the AGP became part of the government to be formed at Dispur after the elections, it would make the foreigners tribuls in the State more active. Perhaps Atul Bora needs to be reminded of a few facts from recent history. The AGP was formed and came to power soon after the signing of the Assam Accord in August 1985. It thus had a five-year term during which it did nothing to implement the provisions of the Assam Accord, especially Clauses 5.1 to 5.9 that dealt with the foreigners issue. The AGP had another five years of power from 1996 but still did nothing about implementing the Assam Accord. If the AGP could not implement the Assam Accord in the ten years given to it, what is the stipulated time that Atul Bora talks about? How many more years would the AGP need? He should also tell us how he intends to make the foreigners tribuls more active. As for deportation of foreign tiols, he should introspect and realize how impossible the AGP itself has made the task.