Clauses 5 & 6 Not In Right Sequence: BJP President Ranjit Kumar Das

GUWAHATI: State BJP president Ranjit Kumar Das has said that two clauses of the Assam Accord concerning the deportation of foreigners and constitutional safeguard to the indigenous people of Assam have not been put in the right sequence, in order of their importance.

Talking to the media at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bhawan here on Tuesday, Ranjit Kumar Das said: “Constitutional safeguard to the indigenous people of Assam is more important than deportation of foreigners from the State. In order of importance, a constitutional safeguard to indigenous people read with Clause 6 of the Accord should have been numbered Clause 5. On the contrary, deportation of foreigners read with Clause 5 in the Accord should have been numbered Clause 6. This apart, the Accord should’ve spelled it out in no uncertain terms that the Foreigners Act, 1955 would not be applicable in Assam. Such a lapse on the part of the signatories of the Accord has led to problems being confronted today.”

On the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Ranjit Kumar Das said: “So as to prevent problems from cropping up in future, we’ve adopted an error-free approach. After this Bill being an Act, if any Bangladeshi is found to have entered the State after March 31, 2014, we’ll move the Supreme Court of India ourselves.” Reacting to the recent incident between AASU and BJP members in Nalbari, Das passed the buck on the Congress and said: “We reek of Congress’ involvement in the episode. The Congress is out to create a confrontation between the BJP and the AASU so as to malign the latter’s image.”

Dass let the media know that he has already asked all party workers to mobilize support for the Citizenship Bill. “We appeal to the people of the State to analyze the Bill without being emotionally driven. The organizations spearheading the agitation against the Bill have been striking an emotional chord, and misleading the people of the State.”

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