Voices Of Dissent Surface At BJP's Show Of Unity

GUWAHATI: For BJP, which has so far circumvented any dialogue on the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the North East Democratic Alliance (Neda) conclave on Sunday turned into a platform for its ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to raise the issue directly before the national party president Amit Shah.
"I would like to draw the attention of Amit Shah ji," AGP president Atul Bora began."AGP strongly opposes the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which violates the Assam Accord - the fruit of a six-year-long agitation for the existence of Assamese people. If passed, the bill will be a threat to the identity of the local people. It will change the demography of the state of Assam. There shouldn't be any divisions on the basis of religion," he said.
The bill, introduced by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2016, proposes citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and has run into strong opposition in Assam's Brahmaputra Valley. For AGP, which has championed the regionalist cause, the bill symbolizes what it is up against - assimilation of Bangladeshi migrants in the Assamese state.
The Assam Accord, signed with leaders of the All Assam Students' Union, had set a March 25, 1971 cut-off date for identifying citizens and did not include any religious grounds for determining citizenship. The bill, on the other hand, proposes to extend the date till December 31, 2014 and introduces religion into an already incendiary mix of identity politics based on ethnicity.
"We urge the Centre not to proceed with the bill. We hope Amit Shah ji will realize the gravity of the situation and act in the greater interests of the people," Bora said, putting the ball in the BJP national leadership's court. Bringing up a promise made by the BJP before the assembly election in 2016, Bora added that the indigenous people of Assam need to be given constitutional safeguards by providing ST status to six communities of Assam.
Hagrama Mohilary, president of Bodoland People's Front - the other constituent of Assam's ruling coalition, has so far maintained a non-committal stance on the bill.