Noisy scenes disrupted the proceedings on the first day of the Monsoon Session of the Assam Assembly on Monday and Speaker Pranab Gogoi expelled all the 18 MlAs of the State’s principal Opposition party — All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) from the House for the day.
The problem started after an AIUDF legislator raised the issue of ‘D’ voters in Assam and alleged that genuine Indian citizens of a particular community has been harassed in the name of verifying their citizenship status.
Sherman Ali Ahmed of the AIUDF asked the question to State Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain, who on behalf of the Chief Minister, informed the House that a total of 1,18,472 illegal foreigners were issued notices by the border police in last ten years.
The Speaker of the Assembly repeatedly requested the AIUDF legislator to take his seat but Ahmed continued to demand answer to his question. As other AIUDF legislators also supported Ahmed and shouted slogans, the Speaker adjourned the House for 10 minutes.
However, the noise over the issue continued after the session resumed. As the AIUDF legislator continued the issue, the Speaker later expelled him for the day.
Ahmed refused to go out of the House and other MlAs of his party also joined him and protested the move of the Speaker.
As the AIUDF MlAs kept shouting in protest against the Speaker’s move and nothing could be heard in the din, the Speaker expelled all the AIUDF legislators for the day. Marshals were called in later, who guided the AIUDF legislators out from the Assembly. Ahmed later accused that the human rights of the affected ‘D’ voters had been violated by not allowing him to discuss the issue in the Assembly. “Genuine Indian citizens have been harassed by police and security forces in the name of detecting foreigners. No steps had been taken by the Government to stop this. When I wanted to know the status, the Forest Minister who was replying, had misled the House by diverting the issue,” said the AIUDF legislator.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, however, blamed the AIUDF legislators for not informing the Government about such happening. “No one had told me about the incidents of harassment of genuine Indian citizens on the name of verifying their citizenship status,” Gogoi said, adding that the AIUDF legislators should have told us if they are aware about such cases.
Gogoi also said that the Government has taken all steps to safeguard the rights of genuine citizens of the country.
On behalf of the Home department, State Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain later told that the Government is committed to update National Register of Citizens (NRC) as soon as possible to solve the issue of illegal
immigration.