Demanding exclusion of the Brahmaputra valley from the purview of the Citizenship Act, ruling BJP’s ally, the Asom Gana Parishad, had on Sunday announced to challenge the law in the Supreme Court after it faced the ire of some party leaders and grassroot level workers.
AGP president and Assam Minister Atul Bora said the Brahmaputra valley should be excluded from the purview of the law and it may be implemented in the Barak valley. “We will take the legal route to seek revocation of the Act as the indigenous people of Assam are apprehensive that their identity, language might come under threat,” AGP leader Kumar Deepak Das said.
A party delegation, led by Mr. Das, will leave for New Delhi to file the plea in the apex court as the PILs seeking revocation of the Act are scheduled to be taken up for hearing on December 18.
‘Maintain calm’
Mr. Das, a former Rajya Sabha MP, appealed to party workers to maintain calm as the AGP “respects the sentiments of the people and we will never go against their hopes and aspirations”.
AGP leader and Minister Keshab Mahanta said the party has not left its “old stand” of opposing the Act. “Though we are a part of the NDA, our stand has not changed. We still do not want this Act to be implemented in Assam and the Northeast,” he added.
The regional party’s lone MP in the Rajya Sabha, Birendra Prasad Baishya, had opposed the Bill in Parliament, but later voted in favour of it. After that, the party has been termed “traitor” and is facing severe criticism across the State with its leaders being boycotted from public events.
Dissidence has been brewing in the AGP after Mr. Bora said if the Centre “wants to bring the Bill, he cannot do anything about it”.
Former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has said that the party had never taken a resolution supporting the Act and urged the leadership to clear the party’s stand on the issue.
‘Not the party’s stand’
“We cannot go against the interests of the indigenous people, and the views expressed by Mr. Bora were his personal and not the stand of the party,” Mr. Mahanta claimed.
Party MLA Brindaban Goswami has also been critical of the party leadership and had said “what is the point of filing a petition against the Act now after the party MP voted in its favour”.
