Assam polls 2016: Has AASU deviated from its ant-immigrant agenda after AGP-BJP tie-up?

Guwahati, March 15: The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has reportedly turned soft on the question of immigration of Hindus from Bangladesh, a report published in Assam-based daily Dainik Jugashankha said, though the students' outfit has not given up its slogans against the immigrants.

According to the report, the AASU has withdrawn a case which was filed in the Supreme Court against the NDA government's decision to provide security to Hindu immigrants from Bangladesh taking refuge in Assam, suggesting that it has turned softer on them.

It may be mentioned here that BJP president Amit Shah said in a rally in the poll-bound state in April last year that his party would give citizenship to those Hindus who arrive from Bangladesh due to religious disturbances, once it comes to power in Assam. The AASU even resorted to protests against the NDA government's notification to grant assylum to the Bangladeshi Hindus saying it was against the core principles of the Assam Accord signed in 1985.

However, the AASU leadership has not agreed to the viewpoint that it has deviated from the key agenda since the Asom Gana Parishad has entered into an alliance with the BJP for the two-phase Assembly elections starting April 4, the report said.

It added that the AASU withdrew the case from the apex court after failing to find much response and since there is another case in the same issue which is pending in the Supreme Court.

But this act of withdrawing the case has given birth to criticism which the AASU is finding difficult to handle, the report added.

The AGP was formed in 1985 following the six-year-long Assam movement by the AASU against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Oneindia News