Clamour for Assam Governor’s exit grows

The meeting, held at the behest of the All-Assam Minorities Student’s Union (AAMSU), described Governor Sinha’s report as a “conspiracy against the minorities of the state” as also “an attempt to fuel communal tension” in Assam. Minister Mazumdar was joined among others in criticising Sinha, by United Minorities Front (UMF) general secretary Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury and an AGP leader Abdul Aziz, while Asomiya Pratidin editor Haider Hussain, Asom Jatiyabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) president Dilip Patgiri and Congress leader Devananda Konwar too lambasted the Governor for the report on the sensitive issue.

Mazumdar, it may be recalled, is the president of a small party called United People’s Party of Assam (UPPA), which is an ally of the AGP. He is also the lone MLA of the party. Mazumdar, before floating the UPPA was senior leader of the Congress. The Minister, while addressing the meeting alleged that Governor Sinha had indulged in “distorting facts of history of Assam.” The Governor had no constitutional right to submit such a report on issues other than those covered by Article 356 of the Constitution, Mazumdar stated.

Mazumdar’s outburst against the Governor interestingly is also indicative of his increasingly souring relationship with the AGP, and it was only recently that he paid a visit to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, a visit which has been seen as Mazumdar’s first step of going back to the party to which he originally belonged. Mazumdar’s relationship with the main partner of the ruling alliance in the state has soured further with the AGP maintaining a stoic silence on the Governor’s report on illegal migrants.

Governor Sinha, in his report, dated November eight, 1998, which was subsequently `leaked out’ to the press, has suggested, among other things, repeal of the illegal migrants determination by tribunals) Act, 1983 which has been accepted by the Centre, (as also by the AGP, though in the past) as a major hurdle in detecting Bangladeshi migrants to the state.

The act itself is discriminatory, because it applies only to Assam, while the rest of the country is governed by the Foreigners’ Act, 1946. “The IMDT Act should be repealed and replaced by a new legislation which should provide for detection for illegal migrants in a just, fair and expeditious manner,….(and) those identified as illegal migrants should be allowed to stay in the country as stateless citizens with no voting right to acquire immovable property,” the Governor’s report had said. This exactly is what has enraged the likes of Minister Mazumdar, as the minority politics in Assam has tended to assert that there has been no illegal migration from Bangladesh, and that the entire move to repeal the IMDT Act was aimed at harassing and victimising the religious minorities of the state.