Three AGP ministers today said they opposed the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 at a meeting of the Assam Cabinet, in a U-turn a day after a party leader claimed the issue was not raised at the key state forum.
The Cabinet meeting was held yesterday and immediately after it Assam government spokesperson and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary had told the reporters that the Asom Gana Parishad did not raise any issue related to the bill.
AGP general secretary Ramendra Narayan Kalita had told the media that the three AGP ministers -- Atul Bora, Keshab Mahanta and Phani Bhusan Choudhury -- did not raise the issue the meeting as Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had met them before it commenced and requested them to discuss it at the next sitting of the coordination committee of the three alliance partners.
But taking a U-turn, Bora, who is the AGP president and the state agriculture minister, today said, "We strongly raised the issue (in the Cabinet meeting). We said that we cannot be in the government if the bill is passed."
At a hurriedly called press conference in the face of widespread criticism over the reported silence, Bora said, "We did not say it yesterday (after the Cabinet meeting) as we wanted to maintain the confidentiality of Cabinet meetings. But this has led to confusion among the people.
"The issue was not in the agenda (of the meeting), yet we raised it and discussed it for about half-an-hour which led to a lot of debate."
Mahanta is in charge of the water resources department and Choudhury holds the civil supplies and consumer affairs portfolio. They were present at the press conference.
Though the bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016, seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslims who have fled persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, indigenous groups in Assam view it as a move to legitimise Hindus who have migrated from Bangladesh after 1971.
The AGP is a constituent of the BJP-led NDA government in Assam and a meeting of the AGP Legislature Party held on May 31 had decided to oppose the bill, which has triggered protests across the state during the past one month and the three ministers had said that they would raise the issue during the Cabinet meeting.
The Bodoland Peoples' Front, the other partner of the ruling alliance, is also opposed to the bill and has asked the Centre to withdraw it keeping in view the interests of the state.
Bora said that there was an understanding after a request from the chief minister that nothing from the Cabinet meeting would be made public.
"But it was not kept. If the statement (by the government spokesperson) was made in a different way, this situation would not have arisen in Assam today," Bora said but refrained from making any further comment.
The AGP, despite being in the government, has been opposing the bill since the beginning. Bora has publicly stated the party's official position many times that it would leave the government if the bill is passed.
Barring the Barak valley, which is dominated by Bengali-speaking people, Assam has been witnessing massive protests against the bill.
The opposition to the bill has united all parties, except the BJP, and former chief ministers Tarun Gogoi and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta joined a sit-in by the Left Democratic Manch on May 31.
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