PM faces students' flak over Bangladeshis

Guwahati, Aug 2 (UNI) Hitting out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) today said the ''reticence'' of the Prime Minister and Chief Minister over the unabated ingress of suspected immigrants to Asom was auguring unwell for the state's future.

Amid allegations of the state government being soft to the suspected Bangladeshis, who had poured in from the neighbouring states in the past few weeks, AASU advisor Sammujal Bhattacharya told a press conference here that over 3,000 suspected Bangladeshis had entered Asom from Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, but a mere 3,000 had been scrutinised.

''The government lacks the courage to detain the suspected Bangladeshis and verify their credentials, '' he opined.

Criticising the Prime Minister for ''not monitoring the updating of the National Registrar of Citizens'' (NRC) and fencing of the international border, Mr Bhattacharya said when a Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh could chase away the Bangladeshis, why the Congress at the state and the Centre was shielding them. First, the Chief Minister said 38 detainees had been found to be suspected, but 24 hours later, he announced that all the 38 were found to be Indian citizens. The volte-face proved that the government was in no mood to invite the ire of the Bangladeshi lobby, the AASU leader said.

He alleged that instead of working for the indigenous people, the Congress-led state government was serving the interests of the immigrants, who form a good chunk of the Congress vote bank. Ridiculing the state and Central governments for their alleged lethargic attitude towards the updating of the NRC and fencing of the border, the AASU said Asom could not be a dumping ground for the Bangladeshis and warned of a severe agitation in near future. During the last tripartite talks the Asom government had said in the past five months, 3,000 cases were sent to the tribunal, of which 548 had been disposed off.

''The 54 people, confirmed to be Bangladeshis, are said to have been missing. Now, the government has said it has scrutinised 3,000 people in three days, '' he stated.

''This is not law, but sheer politics, '' Mr Bhattacharya said, asking all the migrants, who had entered the state after 1971, to leave.

Daring the Chief Minister to give a public declaration against the immigrants, the AASU warned that if the silence of the government continues, Asom would soon become another Jammu and Kashmir, and a Bangladeshi would become its Chief Minister.

UNI