By Abdul Gani, TwoCircles.net
Guwahati: All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), the apex students’ organisation of the state, has sent a strong message to the central government against the recent notification which enables the non-Muslim migrants’ stay in India.
Hundreds of students joined in a rally in western Assam’s Kokrajhar where students’ activists shouted slogans against the BJP and Congress government for playing politics with religion at the risk of country’s future.
A protest rally by AASU against the notification (file photo)
AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya said that both the Congress and BJP have never really wanted to solve the problem of the region.
“And now the BJP-led NDA government at the centre is playing the dirty politics in the line of religion. We will not let them divide the foreigners in the line of religion. We don’t want to identify the foreigners with their religion,” said Bhattacharyya, addressing a gathering of students and other members of civil society.
Earlier, the central government had decided on humanitarian considerations to exempt Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals belonging to minority communities who have entered into India on or before December 31 in 2014 from the relevant provisions of rules and order made under the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and the Foreigners Act, 1946, in respect of their entry and stay in India without such documents or after the expiry of those documents, as the case may be.
The central government has accordingly issued two notifications in the Official Gazette last month under the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and the Foreigners Act, 1946.
The AASU leaders have also been critical at the way the illegal foreigners’ issue was being handled by the different governments.
“In the run of vote bank politics, the political parties have neglected the real issue. To solve this issue, the people of the state carried out the biggest agitation – Assam agitation which lasted for six years and more than 855 Assamese youths sacrificed their lives but even today the issue has not been solved,” he added.
The Assam agitation was started in 1979, following which the Assam Accord was signed with the leaders of agitation and then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. According to Assam Accord anyone who has entered the Indian Territory after March 25, 1971 is an illegal foreigner.
“We have stuck to the point that all the migrants who have crossed the border post March 25 in 1971 are illegal irrespective of their religion, caste and creed. We will continue our agitation,” Bhattacharyya said.