In a bid to embarrass Congress, BJP today sought to know ifthe party and its President Sonia Gandhi concurred with the Assam Accord signedby former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and demanded the agreement be implementedto solve the crisis in the state.
"Mrs Sonia Gandhi, please tell the country clearlywhether you accept Rajiv Gandhi's Assam Accord of 1985...
Please explain where you stand on the issue. BJP wants thatthe Accord be implemented. Will you tell your government to implement it?"Deputy Leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.
The 1985 Accord signed between Rajiv Gandhi, the then PrimeMinister, and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, chief minister of Assam at that time,states that those immigrants who came to the state from Bangladesh till 1966will be given citizenship, those who came between 1967 and 1971 be allowed tosettle down but not given voting rights and those who entered after 1971 shouldbe deported.
"This (not implementing the Accord) is a gross case ofabuse of power for votebank politics," Prasad said.
Prasad said no steps were taken by successive governmentsfrom 1985 to 1997 to implement this Accord and insisted that had this beendone, the scenario would be very different in Assam today.
He pointed out that the controversial Illegal Migrants(Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983, was scrapped by the Supreme Court and asper the Accord detection would be done on the basis of the Foreigners' Act of1946 which puts the onus of proving citizenship on the individual.
BJP also cited the Supreme Court observations in 2005 onillegal migration into Assam from Bangladesh that "this being thesituation (in Assam) there is no doubt that Assam is facing internaldisturbance."
"There have been more than three lakh complaints,10,015 individuals were identified but only 1,481 were deported," Prasadsaid.
BJP alleged UPA government lacks the will to send theseillegal migrants out of the country. It sought to know how many times thepresent government had taken up this issue with Bangladesh.
"The illegal migration from Bangladesh has reached adangerous phase. It is not only affecting the Bodos but also the tribals andother locals in Tripura, Nagaland and other states. This will have seriousimplications on land and other resources," a BJP leader said.
The party said outsiders are not allowed to settle intribal-dominated areas in other states and the land rights of tribals areprotected in these regions but this is being allegedly flouted with impunity inAssam.
BJP sources maintained the NDA government led by Atal BihariVajpayee could not implement the Assam Accord during its six-year tenure from1998-2004 as Trinamool Congress, which was an ally, was opposed to it.