Guwahati: Congress MLAs including opposition leader Debabrata Saikia staged a walkout on Wednesday after a contentious discussion about the Assam Accord’s implementation between the ruling and opposition parties.
On the thirteenth day of the Assam Assembly session, Minister for the Implementation of the Assam Accord Atul Bora countered a question posed by Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia regarding the implementation of the Assam Accord.
Bora asked, “What was the Congress government doing in the past? Congress should ask this question at Rajiv Bhawan in Delhi.”
The opposition leaders opposed Bora’s remarks on the Assam Accord decided to stage a walkout.
Meanwhile, addressing the media outside the Assembly, CLP leader Debabrata Saikia said, “We are not satisfied with the reply by the government on implementation of the clauses 5 and 6 of the Assam Accord. Firstly, we enquired whether the cut-off date for citizenship as per the Assam Accord’s clause 5 was modified. As per clause 5 of the accord, all those who entered the territory of Assam after March 25, 1971 are illegal migrants. The government said it accepted clause 5. However, when I enquired whether the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 will bring any change or hinder in clause 5 of the Assam Accord or not. The reply from the government didn’t come out satisfactory, they claimed the contentious act was passed by the central government and thus, state government has no role to play in this. This act will hamper the clause 5 and 6 of the Assam Accord as the act was passed to offer Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities who had migrated from neighbouring countries.”
Additionally, according to the CLP leader the state government’s Implementation of Assam Accord department has not determined how to work for the preservation, promotion and upliftment of the assamese people’s culture as per clause 6 of the Accord.
“It’s been almost 35 years of the Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement. But till date, the government is not paying any heed to provide constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to the Assamese people. This is unfavorable in terms of our state’s development, hence we decided to stage a walkout,” added Saikia.