Assam’s regional political party Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has decided to meet the members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to express their Opposition to the proposed Constitutional Amendment Bill before October 23.
Senior AGP leader Kamala Kalita said this on Tuesday while adding that an AGP delegation will go to New Delhi soon to meet each of the 30 members of the JPC on Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to impress upon them the dangers looming large on Assam if the Constitutional Amendment Bill is passed.
“We have met the JPC during its hearing in Assam and expressed our reservations regarding the proposed Bill. We are not going to accept the passing of the Bill at any cost. We are also going to hold a mass rally in Assam on October 23 expressing our stiff opposition to the Bill,”
he said.
The AGP and Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF) are the partners of the BJP led alliance Government in Assam. Assam had witnessed severe protests earlier this year protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016, seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to provide citizenship to illegal migrants, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who are of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian extraction.
While the Assam Government is yet to make its stand clear on the Bill, the Meghalaya Government—where BJP is a partner—has taken a cabinet decision to oppose the Bill as it might affect the indigenous people of the State. Different organisations and civil society groups in other northeastern States like Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have also been opposing the Bill.
Meanwhile, the opposition Congress in Assam has slammed the AGP terming the regional party’s opposition to the controversial Bill as mere eyewash and said that the Bill poses gravest threat ever to Assam and its indigenous people.
“The controversial Bill is the gravest threat ever faced by Assam since Independence. It is the biggest ever injustice meted out to Assam. The AGP is hand in glove with the BJP. If the AGP is really against the Bill, they should come out of the alliance,” said former Chief Minister and Congress leader, Tarun Gogoi.
“There is no point of dramatizing a sensitive issue like the Citizenship Amendment Bill. The AGP is not even registering their protests over the Bill,” said Leader of the Opposition of Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia.