AGP announces opposition to bill amending citizenship act

Guwahati, Dec 16 :  The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Saturday expressed its opposition to the Central government's move to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 during the current session of the Parliament.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the regional political party, which is a party of the BJP led alliance in Assam, ruled out an compromise on the issue and said that they will oppose any attempt by the Centre to get the proposed legislation, which seeks to give citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis.

"Any attempt to pass the Bill will be a violation of the terms of Assam Accord and such a situation is unacceptable to the party," said AGP president Atul Bora while adding that the party has decided to hold a public meeting here on December 21 to seek public opinion over the issue.

"We are also going to organize public meetings in all the districts of the state from December 22 to raise an awareness about against the Bill," he said adding that the party will also send a delegation to New Delhi to meet the BJP top brass and other party leaders who are partners of the BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

About the party's alliance with the BJP, Bora said that it is not important as to where we and with they are. "What is important is the fact that we are not going to tolerate any move by the Centre to give citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis by passing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016," he said.

Meanwhile, the Assam unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party reiterated the party's stand that the party favours granting citizenship to those Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist and other minority communities who had entered India due to religious persecutions.

"We would like to make it clear that the BJP is very transparent over the issue of granting citizenship to those minority communities who had entered India due to religious persecutions. However, some section of people are trying to give an impression that passage of the Citisenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 will encourage infiltration of crores of people from Bangladesh to Assam, which is baseless," said state party spokesman Rupam Goswami.