Himanta lied about Assam Accord deadline to detect foreigners,

The AASU on Sunday alleged that senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma lied in the floor of the Assembly by claiming that the Assam Accord did not say anything about March 24, 1971 as the deadline to detect and deport illegal immigrants.

All Assam Students' Union Chief Adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya demanded that Sarma and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal apologise to the people for providing "wrong explanation" about the Accord at the one-day Special Session of the Assembly on January 13.

A six-year agitation demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants was launched by the AASU in 1979. It had culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985, in the presence of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

"Sarma lied in the House by saying that there is no mention of March 24, 1971 deadline to detect and deport illegal immigrants from Assam. However, it is clearly written in Clause 5. He gave a wrong explanation of the Accord.

"We demand that a special session of the Assembly be called and Sarbananda Sonowal, Himanta Biswa Sarma and the Assam government must apologise to the people of Assam," the AASU leader told reporters.

On January 13, Sarma had said in the Assembly that the amended Citizenship Act does not violate the Assam Accord, but is aimed to address the "unresolved" issues of the pact.

"The Assam Accord didn't speak about children of those coming before 1971, so it's inconclusive," he had added.

"The Assam Accord is not that bad. If we had read it properly, 1966 would have been the cut off year and 1967 voter list would have been the NRC. I regret that," he had claimed citing the Clause 5 of the pact.