Guwahati: A ruling BJP legislator from Assam on Wednesday urged chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal to oppose the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, by "reminding" him of his role in getting the IM(DT) scrapped by the Supreme Court. The move reflected the disquiet in the state party unit over the proposed legislation.
Atul Bora, Dispur legislator and a founder member of the AGP, is the only BJP MLA from Assam to take a stand against the bill. The BJP has 61 MLAs in the 126-member Assembly while its allies the AGP and the BPF have 14 and 12 MLAs respectively. The AGP is opposed to the bill.
Bora, who joined the BJP in 2013, in a letter to Sonowal, said, "You became hero for the people of Assam by winning the legal battle to get the IM(DT) Act scrapped. The faith the people of Assam have in you remains intact. Therefore, it is the right time for you to follow the path of Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Kongkal Sangma in opposing the bill. You have to prove yourself as the real regional hero by opposing the bill. It is my request to you."
The Meghalaya cabinet had on Tuesday decided to oppose the bill. The Joint Parliamentary Committee on Bill to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, will hold a hearing in the state on Thursday.
The title of Jatiya Nayak was bestowed upon Sonowal by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) in 2005 after the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) (IMDT) Act was struck down by the Supreme Court in the Sarbananda Sonowal vs Union of India case.
The Indira Gandhi government had enacted the IM(DT) Act in 1983. It places the onus of proving that a person is a foreigner on the complainant.
BJP spokesperson Rupam Goswami had said on Tuesday that the party's stand is clear as the BJP introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha. Another BJP leader said the party will make public its stand on Bora's letter by Thursday.
Sources, however, said there is disquiet within the BJP's state unit given the widespread opposition to the bill, more so because the BJP came to power promising to protect " jati, mati, bheti (community, land, house).
The bill is being opposed on the ground that indigenous people will become minority in their own state if citizenship is accorded to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
Sonowal returned to Guwahati on Wednesday from Bangalore where three organisations of Assamese people, Assam Society, Srimanta Sankardev Cultural Society and Assam Association, submitted memoranda to him, opposing the bill, on Tuesday.
Assembly session: KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi also demanded that the BJP-led Assam government follow the path of the Meghalaya government. He asked the AGP, BJP and the BPF to take a clear stand and urged all parties to demand a special Assembly session to pass a resolution against the bill.
Zubeen plea: Singer Zubeen Garg, during a Bihu function at Moran in Upper Assam on Tuesday night, urged people to "tear" the bill. "No political party can make a fool of us. It is time to move against the bill," he said.
Mancha call: The Prabajan Virodhi Manch, led by Supreme Court lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika, on Wednesday said the public protests in Assam against the bill should be directed towards having a legislation to protect the indigenous people from becoming a minority.
He said the legislation should have a condition that only those who/whose forefathers were citizens/residents of the state in 1951 will have rights over land, government employment and trade licence. Such a legislation will ensure that no migrant will come to Assam and existing ones will be forced to leave," he said.
Hazarika said legislators in Assam should take a tough stand like the ones taken against the Chakma refugees in Arunachal Pradesh and by the Meghalaya cabinet against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, on Tuesday to protect the indigenous people.
