Why refugees at the cost of Assam, asks AGP's Prafulla Kumar Mahanta

If the Amendment Bill 2006 becomes law, the indigenous people of Assam will become minority and language, literature and culture of Assam will be lost

Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, the former founder-president of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), was in Delhi to drum up support against a proposed amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955 that he believes is unfair to Assam’s “indigenous” people. He spoke to Radhika Ramaseshan about the issues confronting Assam. 

Edited excerpts:

You were the star of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU)’s movement for detecting and deporting the so-called foreigners from Assam. After five decades, the exercise is reaching a conclusion of sorts under the leadership of Sarbananda Sonowal, who was your junior colleague in AASU. How do you feel about this?