GUWAHATI, May 10 — The Assam cabinet adopted a resolution opposing the Union Cabinet’s approval to the repeal of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, as Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said the tabling of the Bill in the Parliament for repeal was a ‘political gimmick’ of the BJP-led NDA government. The resolution, adopted last night, pointed out that the Act was for providing security to Indian citizens. Gogoi told PTI here in an exclusive interview that his Congress government had lodged a protest with the Centre for its move to scrap the Act.
“We want illegal foreigners to be detected through the judicial provisions provided in the IMDT and not by police following repeal of the Act,” the chief minister said. Pointing out that the State government’s views was an absolute necessity prior to repealing the act, he remarked, “I don’t understand why they (Centre) did not consult me as the chief minister of Assam where the IMDT is exclusively applicable.”
Stating the last census figures showed Assam’s population growth to be less than the national average, Gogoi said, the figures did not prove that infiltration had increased necessitating repeal of the IMDT. As the repeal issue was sub-judice with a case pending before the Supreme Court, Gogoi said, the Bill should not have been tabled in Parliament. Since 1983 up to 2002, the Chief Minister said, 3.58 lakh people were identified as foreigners of whom only 55,000 were referred to the Tribunals for determination if they were illegal migrants.
“If there was no IMDT, then the 3.58 lakh people would have been unnecessarily deported,” Gogoi added. Asked if his Congress state unit was planning to draw up an agitational programme to protest the repeal, Gogoi said, “our leaders will meet and chalk out a detailed programme.” Meanwhile, APCC chief spokesman, Silvius Condpan here said the Congress as the opposition in Parliament would back the Act.
Voicing the APCC’s total support for the Act, Condpan said, “the APCC vehemently opposes the move to repeal it whose principal objective is to safeguard the interest of genuine Indian citizens from undue harassment on the pretext of identification of foreigners.” The Act, he said, was never aimed at protecting and harbouring foreigners and its only concern was that no genuine citizen should suffer humiliation.
Our Staff Reporter adds: Decrying the ‘clandestine’ manner in which the IMDT repeal Bill was tabled in Parliament on Friday, the Sanmilita Janagosthiya Sangram Samiti (SJSS) today termed it as a ploy to divide the people of the State and communal lines to pave the way for creation of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). The SJSS also called a 60-hour Assam bandh beginning at 6 pm on May 11 in protest against it.
Accusing the Centre of hatching a conspiracy behind the simultaneous tabling of the BTC creation and IMDT repeal Bills on the last day of the session, SJSS convenor Hareswar Barman today said the way the IMDT Bill has been pushed forward, “it smacks of a sinister design on the part of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre to create mistrust and fear among the people on communal lines so that the formation of the BTC becomes an easier proposition.”
“The two Bills have been tabled without taking the Opposition into confidence and keeping all the people in the dark, which is a blatant disregard of democratic principles,” Barman said. Terming the BTC agreement as nothing but a pact of the Government with some terrorist elements completely overlooking the interests of the majority non-Bodo people, Barman said the BTC was gaining opposition from all quarters including other tribal groups and even a section of the Bodo populace itself, “but it is unfortunate that despite all this stiff resistance, the Government should have chosen to ignore the people’s mandate and gave the go-ahead for BTC formation.”
Meanwhile, a State-level convention on ‘BTC formation and future of Assam’ was held under the auspices of the SJSS at Pandit Tirthanath Sarma auditorium today where all the speakers representing over 20 organisations vehemently denounced the move to form the BTC and pledged to fight it at any cost.