Publish fil NRC 6 months after draft: Gogoi

GUWAHATI, Dec 2: Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is now chanting the mantra – publish and public – asking the powers that be at Dispur and Delhi to publish the fil NRC within six months after the publication of the draft NRC and make framework agreement on the proposed galim public.

Talking to newsmen at Rajiv Bhawan in Guwahati on Saturday, Gogoi said: “We want the government to publish the fil NRC within six months after the publication of the draft NRC. The government has all along been saying that the NRC update work has been carried out in the State by the Supreme Court of India, which is factually not correct. Has the apex court updated the NRC itself, why should it have reprimanded the government for NRC delay? The fact remains that the government is updating the NRC and the Supreme Court is monitoring the updating process.”

Gogoi said: “The AGP, BJP and the AIUDF don’t want NRC update as such a step is set to seal their political future. It’s me who sowed the NRC plant with the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) piling earth on its base. NRC plant is bearing fruits but not yet ripe.”

Rejecting government’s contention that around lakh foreigners are staying illegally in Assam outright, Gogoi said: “I don’t say that there is no Bangladeshi in Assam. It’s because of the presence of Bangladeshis in Assam I did form foreigners’ tribuls and raised their numbers to 100. However, I never agree to the statement that there are 30/40 lakh Bangladeshis in Assam. The government created a fear psychosis on the NRC issue. The government even told the apex court of law-and-order problems in post-draft NRC publication. How dare foreigners create land-and-order problems in the State! Even if they dare such a misadventure, where is the administration? The people of Assam want the NRC updating to be complete.”

Gogoi further said: “The President of India greeting the people of galand on twitter on their bright days ahead has made the issue of ga framework agreement even more obscure. This is because the people of Assam are in dark on the content of the agreement. If the Manipur Chief Minister can hold all-party meeting on the ga framework agreement and communicate with the Centre, what prevents Assam Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal from taking any such step? It was Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Prime Minister and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta as the Chief Minister of Assam who had extended the ceasefire with NSCN-IM in disputed areas in Assam in 2000. Soon after becoming the Chief Minister in 2001 I vehemently opposed it. Likewise, when the Framework agreement was being reached between the Centre and the NSCN-IM in 2015 I wrote a letter to the Centre opposing the move. Now we want the government to make the content of the agreement public. How come the government signs such an agreement when the dispute is sub-judice at the apex court? Now the case over border dispute with galand has been slowed down after the BJP coming to power. Sonowal is a timid Chief Minister and that breeds all problems with bureaucrats taking everything lightly. Let Sonowal translate the ideals of Chawlong Siukapha into reality, mere talking the talk won’t do anything.” Gogoi termed the eviction of indigenous people of the State from Amchang Reserve Forest as another Burmese invasion to Assam.