Centre’s move is against spirit of Assam Accord: Prafulla Kumar Mahanta

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, one of the signatories of the Assam Accord, has said that the approval to the CAB (Citizenship Amendment Bill) by the Union Cabinet is a betrayal to the people of Assam by the Government of India.

The Union Cabinet approved the CAB on Wednesday.

Reacting sharply to the approval of the Bill, Mahanta said, “The CAB is against the Assam Accord. The Bill, if passed by the Parliament, will nullify a number of clauses of the Assam Accord. In such a reality, the existence of the indigenous people of the State will be at stake. We had challenged the legality of the IM(DT) Act in the Supreme Court and got it repealed as it stood as a stumbling block in the process of detection and deportation illegal infiltrators in the State.”

On comments from various quarters being made on the Assam Accord, Mahanta said, “No comments degrading the Assam Accord will be tolerated. Some people may make such comments to serve their own interests. People who were not directly involved with the Assam Agitation fail to feel what the movement actually was. A number of such people not directly involved with the Assam Movement are now leaders of various parties and organizations. The ground reality in Assam is that the people of the State are not ready to shoulder the burden of infiltrators who entered Assam after 1971. This, they feel, is going against the sacrifice of 855 martyrs of the historic agitation.”

On the three AGP ministers meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the CAB recently, Mahanta said, “They are yet to make public the outcome of their talks with Shah. I’ve no idea as to who had gone and what kind of understanding took place on the Bill.”

The three AGP ministers had a discussion on the CAB at the party forum before leaving for their meeting with Shah.

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