Cong, AASU slam Centre, call Assam Accord panel 'pre-election sop'

The Congress and the All Assam Students Union (AASU) Thursday termed as pre-election sop the Union cabinet's decision to set up a high-level committee to recommend safeguards to protect the indigenous people of Assam.

A high-level committee had also been set up earlier by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government to implement the Assam Accord, but it did not yield any result, the AASU, a signatory to the Accord, and the Congress said here separately.

The NDA government at the Centre came to power in 2014 and the Sarbananda Sonowal government won the state polls in 2016, but they found time to implement the Clause-6 of the Accord only when the Lok Sabha election is approaching, said the AASU and Congress.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had on Wednesday announced that the cabinet would set up a high-level panel for implementation of Clause-6 of the Assam Accord signed in 1985.

Singh said the clause, which provides for protection of the rights of indigenous people of the state, had not been fully implemented even almost 35 years after the Accord was signed.

A six-year agitation by the AASU demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord by the Rajiv Gandhi government and the AASU on August 15, 1985.

AASU Chief Advisor Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya said the decision was an attempt to "assuage the feelings of the Assamese community which was hurt due to the move to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955."