High power Asom delegation calls on L K Advani

New Delhi, Mar 26: A high power delegation of All Assam Students' Union (AASU) called on Leader of the Opposition L K Advani here today and told him that if the process of Delimitation is not stopped immediately in Asom prior to the finalisation of the National Register of Citizen (NRC) than it would be virtually impossible to stop the ulterior designs of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. The ISI was planning to bring Asom and the entire North East in the map of the ''Greater Islamic World,'' said AASU advisor Dr Samujjal Bhattacharjee.

The delegation led by its President Shankar Prasad Ray,urged Mr Advani to use his good offices in putting pressure on the Centre to implement the Asom accord in its true letter and spirit with cut of date for the identification of foreigners as on December 31, 1971 in a time frame to convey to the people the Centre is serious about solving Asom's foreigner issue once and for all.

The meeting lasted an hour.

Later addressing newsmen , Dr Bhattacharjee said, ''we are not here to blame any single political party as all political parties are equally to be blamed for the present state of affairs in Asom where the ''The people land of the was pushed to the corner and are on the verge of being declared to be in a minority,'' he regretted.

He said it was made possible as the ''bureaucracy in Delhi could not think anything beyond Kolkata and for them whether Asom became a part of greater Bangladesh or not is immaterial,'' he added.

So far for the past 22 years AASU have been following and practising the method of non-violence to achieve their objectives but it has not yielded any results.

The Governemnt should not test the patience of the people of Asom how long AASU could hold on to the people for practicisng ways of non-violence is a big question mark, Dr Bhattacharjee said. He said though the Asom accord was signed by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi it just remained on paper and nothing was done to implement it. The first tripartite meeting on it was held here on May 5, 2005 under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and attended by AASU and Assam Government officials.

He pointed out at that meet it was decided to update the National Register of Citizen's (NRC) and only after this is being completed any fresh delimitation process would be taken up but it is a matter of regret that though the State Government is updating that NRC record the Centre moved ahead with its agenda of delimitation process in Asom to deprive the Assamese people to have their own Government elected by them. As the delimitation process will give weightage to population factor alone, he added.

The other mebers in the AASU delegation include party General Secretary Tapan Kumar Gogoi along with Asom Gana Parishad's Lok Sabha MP Sarbanand Sonowal.

Mr Bhattacharjee said the Chairman, Delimitation Commission (DC) Justice Kuldeep Singh has told them in one of their early meeting that he is ready for change but for that the advisory note should come from the Centre.

He said Mr Advani has assured the delegation that he would take up the matter with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

The AASU delegation has also called on the Home Mnister Shivraj Patil and submitted a memorandum to him in this regard and he too has assured the delegation to look into the matter.

UNI