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."
The Leader of Opposition in Assam assembly Debabrata Saikia said termed the decision a 'jumla' before the elections as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was rattled by the fierce opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, for granting Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12, even if they don't possess any proper document.
The AASU and other socio-political organisations of the northeast have vehemently opposed the bill.
"The BJP is trying to hoodwink the people of Assam by giving sops before the general elections as the party is known for using cheap gimmicks and insincere promises to win elections," Saikia said in a statement here.
The nodal ministry for implementation of the Assam Accord is the union home ministry and the Central and Assam governments are to implement it, said Bhattacharya, wondering how the committee could decide the fate of the state.
"Detection, deletion and deportation of illegal Bangladeshis from Assam and border protection are the responsibility and duty of the two governments and not of committees. This is not acceptable," he asserted.
A high-level committee, with bureaucrat G K Pillai as the head, had been constituted for implementing the Assam Accord when Atal Behari Vajpayee was the prime minister but no further progress was made during his five-year term, Saikia said.
One of the AASU representatives in the panel was Assam's current chief minister, Bhattacharya said.
"We were on the path of consensus and only declaration was awaited. But the central government yesterday gave the impression that the issue of seat reservation is a new thing," the AASU leader said.
After the Narendra Modi government came to power at the Centre, the Union Home Minister had announced on December 27, 2016 that Clause-6 would be implemented, Saikia said.
"It appears that the BJP considers the people of Assam extremely gullible as it has come up with a new assurance when the list of unfulfilled pre-election promises made in 2014 and 2016 is already quite long," he added.
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