GUWAHATI, May 9 — Even as the bill to repeal the IMDT Act was tabled in the Parliament today, hectic activities are on in the State among the protagonist and adversaries of the controversial act to mobilise public opinion in favour of their respective stands. While the BJP today took out a procession from Fancy Bazar to the DC’s court in the city exhorting support to the move to repeal the Act, the United Minorities Front (UMF) has convened a meeting of the like minded organisations to evolve a strategy for saving the Act or to find out an alternative to save the Indian minorities of Bangladesh origin from harassment of the State machinery in case the Act is repealed on May 11 in the city.
However, the Akhil Bharatiya Nepali Mahasanmilan and the Rashtriya Gorkha Parisangha have maintained that the repeal of the IMDT Act will in no way affect the status of the Indians of Nepal origin. Talking to The Assam Tribune here today Sri R P Sarma, who is the president of the Akhil Bharatiya Nepali Mahasanmilan and also the advisor of the Rashtriya Gorkha Parisangha, said that the Foreigners’ Act, 1946 did not cause any harm to a single Indian of Nepal origin staying in Assam, prior to the IMDT Act coming into being.
Sri Sarma, also a senior advocate of the Gauhati High Court here, argued that after the IMDT Act came into effect in 1983, the Government of India made it IMDT applicable, through a notification in 1984, applicable in the case of Indians of Nepal origin too. As a result, he said, a large number of IMDT cases were filed against the Indians of this category taking them for doubtful citizens. Thousands of names of these Indians were either deleted from the voters’ lists or marked as those of ‘D’ voters. These people were hunted upon even at the bus stations and at the railway stations of the State by Assam Police.
As a member of this category of the Indians, Sri Sarma said that he was happy with the move to repeal the IMDT Act and he also made an appeal to all the Indians of Nepal origin living in Assam to extend unstinted support to the move. But UMF president HRA Chudhury, also a senior advocate in the Gauhati High Court, viewed the move to repeal the IMDT Act as an attempt at vitiating the atmosphere. “By dividing the State’s people in Narendra Modi’s style, the BJP is in fact trying to vitiate the situation”, he said and called for a popular vigil to frustrate the design.
It is a fact that the bill will face vehement opposition from the BJP’s allies, let alone the other parties, in the Parliament. Then why the Union Cabinet opted for it, he woundered. “We do not want protection to any foreigner, but the genuine Indians should not be harassed”, he said and called for united efforts at evolving modalities to safeguard the interest of the minorities living in the State through a national debate.
AGP president Brindaban Goswami, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, meanwhile vehemently criticised the statement of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi that a serious situation would arise in the State in case the IMDT Act is repealed as a provocative one. The Chief Minister and the Congress will be responsible for any untoward development in the State on the issue, Sri Goswami warned.