APCC questions AASU's logic

'The right to speak in the interests of the tion (jati), land (mati) and interests (swartha) of Assam is not of the AASU alone. Each and every party and organization of the State does have this right' — Assam Pradesh Congress Committee

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 16: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has questioned the logic behind the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) being soft towards BJP that openly goes against the Assam Accord.

In a statement issued to the press today, the APCC, while hailing the students’ body clarifying its stand on Hindu Bangladeshis, said: “It’s an open secret that the AASU almost openly backed the BJP. This was despite the fact that the vision document of the Saffron party openly making it clear that after coming to power they would provide Indian citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis. This was also repeatedly uttered in the run-up to the last Assembly election in the State by both Prime Minister rendra Modi and the party’s tiol president Amit Shah. What led the AASU to keep silence at that time and lend support to the BJP? This apart, there were media reports that the then AASU general secretary Tapan Kumar Gogoi, who is now BJP MLA from Sori, was hobnobbing with the BJP to join the party. The AASU then gave him a formal send-off as though to pave the way for him to join the BJP. In one hand, the AASU is vocal on the issue of deportation of foreigners from the State in accordance with the Assam Accord, and on the other, it shows softness towards the BJP that is going against the Assam Accord. The students’ body even paves the way for its leaders to join the BJP. What kind of logic is this?”

The APCC further said that the timing of the withdrawal of the writ petition filed by the AASU at the Supreme Court against move of the Centre to accord Indian citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindus only confused the people of the State. “What we came to know from an advocate of the Gauhati High Court is: there’s no such rule that more than one writ on the same issue can’t be admitted. Rather the admission of more than one writ on an issue increases the importance of the issue.”

The State PCC further said: “The right to speak in the interests of the tion (jati), land (mati) and interests (swartha) of Assam is not of the AASU alone. Each and every party and organization of the State does have this right. The way the AASU has the right speak against the BJP’s move to provide Indian citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis by violating the Assam Accord, as a political party accountable to the people of the State the Congress too has the right to speak against the BJP’s move that is set to spell doom for the people of the State. The Congress too wants the solution to the foreigner problem in the State in accordance with the Assam Accord.”