The Assam Congress will move a resolution in the Assembly on January 13 to keep the state out of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act’s purview.
Addressing a news conference, Assam PCC president Ripun Bora here on Friday said if the government does not move the resolution, the Congress would move it to keep Assam out of the Act’s purview and send it to the Centre.
The Assembly will hold a special session on January 13 to ratify constitutional amendment to extend reservation to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.
Bora said Leader of the Congress Legislature Party Debabrata Saikia had sought a special session on the Act which has not been granted.
“The Congress has no dispute on the ratification on extending reservation to the SC and ST communities. But on the day, we will also place a resolution to keep Assam out of the Act’s purview. If the ruling party brings the resolution, we will welcome it. If not, as an Opposition party, we will bring a resolution,” Bora said.
“The Centre and the state government have time and again committed that they would never allow the Assam Accord to be diluted. But now the Accord has been violated by the Act’s introduction. We will move the resolution that the Assam Accord should not be diluted in any circumstances and the Act implemented in Assam.”
Saikia said the Congress had pushed for a resolution so that the Assam Accord is not violated. “The matter was discussed for over a year. We were assured by the government that it will take a resolution and send to the Centre if they take any move that violates the Assam Accord. They said they had received assurances from the Centre that it would not take any step that violates the Accord,” he added.
Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said the Act not only violates the Assam Accord but also its preamble and the country’s secular character.
Gogoi said the state is using all sorts of oppressive measures to suppress the anti-CAA protests.
The Assembly should discuss the Act as the state is passed through its “most critical situation”, he added.
Gogoi hit back at cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his remark that all infiltrators entered Assam during the Congress’s 15-year tenure. “If it was, so you (Sarma) are to be blamed. You were the Assam Accord implementation minister then.”
Former minister and Golaghat MLA Ajanta Neog said earlier the state had taken a vague stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill but later it supported the bill. “I had tried several times to pass a resolution by the Assembly against bill but it went in vain.”
