AJP, Raijor Dal criticise PM for unfulfilled poll promises

On the eve of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's visit to Assam, newly floated politicalparties Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and Raijor Dal on Fridayalleged that the BJP has failed to fulfil its ''tall promises''made before the 2016 assembly polls.

At a press conference here, AJP president LurinjyotiGogoi posed a few questions on topics such as imposition ofthe controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which theALP alleged was aimed at giving citizenship to Bangladeshis inthe state.

Raijor Dal's working president Bhasco D Saikia said,of the 476 promises made by the saffron party in its visiondocument in 2016, only five have been fulfilled.

PM Modi will be arriving in Sivasagar district onSaturday to launch a special programme of the stategovernment to distribute land 'patta' or land allotmentcertificates to over one lakh landless indigenous people.

''Prior to the last elections, the prime minister hadsaid that all Bangladeshis in the state will have to packtheir bags and go once the BJP comes to power but now theyhave laid out the red carpet for them and deprived theindigenous Assamese of their basic political, economic,linguistic and constitutional rights,'' the AJP president said.

The BJP had also promised to fulfil the clauses of thehistoric Assam Accord but it has failed to do so which is an''immense insult'' to 860 martyrs of the Assam movement, hesaid.

The Assam Accord of 1985, which was signed followingthe Assam agitation, had assured of detecting, deleting anddeporting illegal migrants by updating the National Registerof Citizens (NRC) with March 24, 1971 as the cut off date,irrespective of religion.

Moreover, the committee set up for the implementationof clause 6 of the Assam Accord had submitted its report inFebruary last year but the government is yet to announce anyaction on that, he said.

The clause promised constitutional, legislative andadministrative safeguards to protect, preserve and promote thecultural, social and linguistic identity and heritage of theindigenous Assamese people.

With the intention of providing citizenship to HinduBengalis, the BJP did not play a positive role in the updationof the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which was aneffective instrument for the identification and deportation offoreigners from the state, Gogoi, the former All AssamStudents' Union (AASU) general secretary, alleged.

The then home minister Rajnath Singh had promised thatthe Indo-Bangladesh border would be completely sealed but evennow 52 km of the border remains open, the AJP president said.

The party also hit out at the PM, saying that hisgovernment had failed to treat the annual floods of thenortheastern state as a national problem.

Meanwhile, the Raijor Dal highlighted that of the 476promises made by the BJP in the 2016 poll vision document,only five have been completely fulfilled and 46 partially met.

In 17 cases, totally opposite steps have been taken bythe BJP-led government in the state, Saikia said.

''Having failed to keep its promises, the BJP is nowresorting to ugly communal politics and its failure on allfronts have now made it vengeful,'' he said.

The Raijor Dal has prepared a document, researchedunder the guidance of its jailed president Akhil Gogoi,mentioning that 89.29 per cent promises made in the BJP's 2016vision document have not been fulfilled.

Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) presidentRipun Bora on Thursday had posed 24 questions to the primeminister, including imposition of CAA, failure of the BJP todeport Bangladeshis and protect the rights of the indigenouscommunitIes.

The CAA says that members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist,Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come fromPakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014facing religious persecution in those countries will not betreated as illegal immigrants but will be given Indiancitizenship.