AGP slams Gogoi, Acharya for ‘irresponsible’ comments

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Saturday burnt effigies of chief minister Tarun Gogoi across the state for his ‘irresponsible’ statement on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that is currently being updated. It also criticized governor P B Acharya for what it termed his ‘politically-coloured statement’ on the update.
The Gogoi government recently proposed the inclusion, in the updated NRC, of those whose names appear in the 2014 electoral rolls.Many organizations, including BJP, opposed this move on the grounds that it would ‘undermine’ the NRC update that is aimed at detecting illegal immigrants in Assam.
“The state government is trying to accommodate illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in the NRC. The Congress government has no existence without illegal voters. This is a threat to the people of the state,” said AGP general secretary Kamalakanta Kalita. The AGP leadership said the update process should be completed according to the guidelines of the Supreme Court. Reacting to Acharya’s proposal that ‘people who took shelter in Assam after fleeing Bangladesh due to religious persecution should be given Indian citizenship’, the AGP leaders said governor was behaving like a ‘political leader’. “The governor is also safeguarding illegal immigrants. This is a threat to the integrity of Assam,” he said.