RSS faces flak for denigrating Assam Accord

Standing by 1971 as cut-off year, AASU-AASM flay Shankar Das

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Oct 8: Slamming RSS leader Shankar Das for his remarks on the Assam Accord, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the Asom Andolan Sangrami Mancha (AASM) today asked him to withdraw his statements or face the music.

Both the organizations accused the RSS leader of "misinterpreting" the Accord as "he lacks knowledge about the State's history."

AASU president Dipanka Kumar th and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said there can be no change in the cut-off year of 1971 for identification of illegal migrants. "855 martyrs sacrificed their lives for it. The RSS cannot disregard the Assam Accord. We won't tolerate it," they said.

The AASU leader said there cannot be any difference between a Hindu immigrant and a Muslim immigrant. "If the RSS sympathizes with the Hindu immigrants, it can settle them in other states, but not in Assam," the AASU said.

AASM leader and former MP Kumar Deepak Das said the RSS is ignorant about the history of Assam.

"Assam is not for any specific religious community. The State has a unique history of religious harmony," he said, reiterating that all immigrants - irrespective of their religious affiliation - who came after 1971 are illegal.

He said the cut-off year of 1971 was a "consensus decision" and the RSS cannot "defy" it. While backing the Central government notification on regularizing minority refuges from Pakistan and Bangladesh, RSS leader Shankar Das had yesterday said that the Assam Accord is not relevant today. "The situation then was different," he had commented.