From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: The regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has found itself on slippery ground vis-à-vis its partner BJP in the ruling alliance in Assam in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bold declaration in Silchar on Friday that the BJP-led NDA government will strive to get the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed in Parliament as soon as possible.
It is finally time for the AGP to now decide whether to continue to remain in the BJP-led coalition government in Assam or to snap ties with the saffron party in the light of its avowed stand against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.The basic objective of the bill is to facilitate citizenship to persecuted minority community refugees from neighbouring countries –Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan — including Bengali-speaking Hindus from Bangladesh.The AGP, an offspring of the Assam Agitation (1979-1985) against ‘illegal migrants’ from Bangladesh, has been asserting that it will snap ties with the BJP in Assam once the controversial bill is tabled in the Parliament.AGP says that it opposes the bill because it intends to grant citizenship on the basis of religion which is against the principles of the Indian Constitution.
Meanwhile, the BJP state unit in Assam had already made it clear that the ball was in the AGP’s court to decide whether it will continue with its association with the BJP-led government. Both the parties soured their relations after contesting the recent panchayat elections separately despite being partners in the coalition government.The AGP is obviously in a bind now. It has to decide whether it will continue to remain in the ruling dispensation led by the BJP thereby risking its support base in the Brahmaputra Valley or snap ties with the saffron party protesting against the Citizenship Bill. Further dilly-dallying will definitely put the regional party’s future at stake.