Guwahati: The AGP, regional ally of the BJP-led coalition government in Assam, on Monday said the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, introduced by the Narendra Modi government would destroy the age-old secular character of Assamese society and demanded its withdrawal.

"The AGP is a secular party and the people of Assam strongly believe in secularism. If the bill is passed, secularism will be severely affected and the age-old unity among communities disturbed. Assamese people will be linguistic minority and our culture will be destroyed," AGP president and agriculture minister Atul Bora said here soon after a party delegation met the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Bill to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955.

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in July 2016 to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to make Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who left Afgha-nistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to escape religious persecution, eligible for Indian citizenship. Following opposition to the bill, the Centre constituted the JPC to examine the bill and submit a report.

The AGP has 14 MLAs in the 126-member Assembly, the BJP 61 and the Bodoland People's Front, another ally, 12 legislators.

Bora and two other AGP ministers, Keshav Mahanta and Phani Bhushan Choudhury, were part of the team which opposed the bill at the JPC meeting here.

Bora said, "The AGP was born after the six-year (1979-1985) anti-foreigners movement and the Assam Accord was signed to push the foreigners out with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date. Passage of this bill will violate the Assam Accord and update of the National Register of Citizens, which will then turn out to be a futile exercise. Despite being in the government, we have strongly opposed the bill here and in Delhi, met President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh in this regard," he said.

The AGP team also accused the JPC of being biased, saying they were holding the hearing only in Guwahati and Silchar (Tuesday and Wednesday). "Hearing should be organised in Upper Assam, lower Assam, the hill districts and on the north bank of the Brahmaputra. The committee should be impartial on this," Bora said.

The BPF did not turn up for the hearing or clarify its stand.