Throw Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in garbage bin, AGP tells BJP

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The AGP has asked the BJP to ‘throw the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in the garbage bin to prove its claim of respecting the Assam Accord’. The regional party has also asked the BJP-led Government at the Centre ‘if it is taking the side of Indians or of foreigners, and if it wants to be with the former it should throw the Bill in the garbage bin’.

The AGP staged a massive rally in Guwahati in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The party has all along been opposing the Bill that goes against the interests of Assam. The party has been in record meeting the President of India, the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, the JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Bill) chairman and urging them to cancel the Bill.

With all such efforts not yielding the desired results, the regional party held a mammoth protest rally at Latasil playground from where it took out a procession up to Chandmari in the city on Tuesday. Despite the Assam bandh, thousands of people gathered at Latasil Field to show their solidarity with the party against, what it says, the anti-Assam Bill. Speaking from the playground, AGP president Atul Bora said: “Keeping people’s mandate into account, we had to stitch an alliance with the BJP in the last Assembly poll. Respecting the same mandate, we became a coalition partner of the BJP at Dispur. However, we’ve have been raising our voice as and when any anti-Assamese stand like the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is taken. To get the Bill cancelled, we met the President of India, the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister and the JPC chairman many a time. The BJP claims that it respects the Assam Accord. If that is so, the party has to throw the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the garbage bin to prove its claim as the Bill is out to violate the Accord. The BJP-led Government at the Centre should make it clear if it takes the side of Indians or foreigners. If it wants to be with Indians, it should throw the Bill in the garbage bin. The sacrifice of over 855 martyrs led to the signing of the Assam Accord and formation of the AGP. The Accord is the Gita, the Bible and the Koran for the AGP. We’re going to fight against the passage of the Bill till the end.”

Speaking at the rally, former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said: “We’ve no time to waste. All should come forward against the Bill. Emboldened with political patronization, a section of organizations has been speaking in support of the Bill.”

AGP working president Keshab Mahanta said: “The Bill, in the event of getting its passage, will endanger the existence of the Assamese in their own State. Those who are out to pass the Bill should demand its cancellation for the sake of the Assamese nationality. National parties are out to bring foreigners to Assam as they’ve no faith on the Assamese.”

Former MP Birendra Prasad Baishya said: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on record saying in the run-up to the last Lok Sabha election that Bangladeshis would have to pack up from Assam. Now he’s inviting Bangladeshis to Assam.” Baishya cautioned the BJP not to do politics on the interests of Assam.

Minister Phani Bhushan Choudhury, former AGP president Brindabon Goswami, former minister Rekharani Das Boro, intellectual Adip Phukan, Maini Mahanta, Nekibur Zaman and others spoke against the Bill and appealed to the people of the State to foil any move to pass it.