'BJP Allowing Foreigners To Come To Assam': Congress' Debabrata Saikia Reacts To Centre Notifying CAA

The notification of the rules will now enable the minorities who have been persecuted on religious grounds in countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, to acquire Indian citizenship.

Guwahati: The Narendra Modi-led central government on Monday notified the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), four years after it was passed by the parliament. The notification of the rules will now enable the minorities who have been persecuted on religious grounds in countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, to acquire Indian citizenship.

Reacting on the development, Assam Congress MLA and the Leader of Opposition in the Assam Assembly Debabrata Saikia said the grand old party had been demanding that the CAA should not be implemented in the state as the Assam Accord already gives safeguard to the indigenous Assamese people.  

“The centre today declared that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 has been implemented all over the country including Assam. We had been demanding that the act should not be implemented in the state as we have the Assam Accord which gives safeguard to the indigenous Assamese people. According to the Assam Accord, the people from other countries, who entered Assam or India up to 24 March 1971, will be an Indian citizen, and they can stay in the state,” Saikia said.

Saikia said that the new act will now allow anyone who came to Assam or India up to 31 December 2014 to become an Indian citizen and avail all the benefits.

“This new act will now allow anyone coming to Assam or India up to 31 December 2014 to become an Indian citizen, to stay in Assam, to buy land and property in the state, and enjoy all the facilities. This is against the Assam Accord which was accepted by all the people of Assam in the year 1985 when the Assam Accord was signed between the All Assam Students Union (AASU), the All Assam Ganasangram Parishad and the then Central government,” Saikia added.

Saikia added that Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister when the Assam Accord was signed and Gandhi sacrificed the then Congress government in Assam to bring peace and to make all the people living in Assam happy.

“The Central government under the leadership of Narendra Modi, before coming to power in 2014, had declared in Assam that all the foreigners who are in the state will be asked to go back and will be driven away from Assam after 16 May 2014 as soon as he becomes the Prime Minister of India. But it is unfortunate now that after 10 years as Prime Minister, he is now allowing the foreigners to come to Assam and enjoy all the benefits as an Indian citizen violating the spirit of the Assam Accord,” Saikia said.   

Saikia further said that he hopes that the people of Assam will now realise what mistake they have committed by keeping faith in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He said that the people of the state will now do whatever is required to stop illegal foreigners coming to Assam as the state cannot take the burden of foreigners anymore.