The AGP, a key constituent of the BJP-led dispensation in Dispur, took out a massive rally here on Tuesday against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
The rally coincided with the 12-hour Assam bandh called by several organisations on the same issue.
Thousands led by AGP leaders marched from Latasil to Chandmari shouting slogans against the bill as loudspeakers blared Bhupen Hazarika’s song Aah aah ulai aah xojag jonota… (Come out the conscious citizens, come). The party claimed over 50,000 people took part in the rally.
AGP president and agri-culture minister Atul Bora said they would never accept the bill as it violates the 1985 Assam Accord, which is “Gita, Bible and Quran” for them.
“We will fight against the bill until the last drop of blood. We cannot allow the bill to
become law. Delhi has to respect the sentiments of the people of the state,” Bora said.
The stakes for the AGP is high as it is identified as a party born out of the six-year-long Assam Movement agai-nst foreigners illegally entering and settling in Assam upsetting demographic and socio-economic set-ups. The movement culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985.
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, the founder president of the AGP who was in the rally, said: “The bill is a threat to the Assamese community and must be opposed tooth and nail.”
The bill proposes to grant citizenship to people from Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists communities who have come to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before December 31, 2014, whereas the Assam Accord stipulates that all foreigners irrespective of their religion who have entered the state
illegally after March 24,
1971, shall be detected and
deported.
The AGP leaders had met joint parliamentary committee chairman Rajendra Agrawal in Meerut on Sunday and demanded scrapping of the bill.
AGP executive president and water resources minister Keshab Mahanta said Assam had already taken the burden of the illegal migrants who came to the state up to March 24, 1971, as per the Assam Accord and the state was in no position to accommodate any more foreigners. Mahanta cited the history of language disturbance in the state to
substantiate his point that only implementation of the Assam Accord can secure the interests of the indigenous people.
Food and civil supplies minister Phani Bhusan Choudhury, West Guwahati MLA Ramendra Narayan Kalita and other party leaders such as Kamala Kalita and Birendra Prasad Baishya participated in the rally.
During the rally, AGP workers were seen carrying the party’s flags and placards, proclaiming slogans like “Scrap the Citizenship Amendment Bill”, “Do not turn foreigners into Indians”, “Bangladeshis beware” and “AGP zindabad”.
