Assam has been on the boil ever since Lok Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 – Rajya Sabha is yet to clear it. Some protesters in the state have been charged with sedition and Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure has been invoked. Another fallout was the decision of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to pull out of the state government. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, AGP leader and former chief minister, who was a signatory to the Assam Accord in 1985, spoke to Prabin Kalita on the issue:

Why is the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which would be applicable for the whole nation, not welcomed in Assam?

In the entire nation determination of citizenship is done under the Citizenship Act, 1955. After our anti-foreigners’ movement against lakhs of illegal migrants from Bangladesh who settled in Assam, we got the Assam Accord in 1985 and a new cut-off date, March 24, 1971, to determine citizens. The Accord says that anyone who has entered Assam after March 24, 1971 would be treated as an illegal migrant and will be deported. We have absorbed all immigrants till this date but now this government wants us to take the burden of more people who have entered up to December, 2014.

So, do you feel BJP has done something wrong?

BJP has completely ignored the Assam Accord and brought this bill by the backdoor. If the bill is passed, it will not only violate the provisions of the Accord but because of this legislation, the indigenous people of Assam will lose their linguistic and cultural identities, and even their political rights. They will become minorities in their own homeland as the amendments will make more illegal migrants Indian citizens. Assam will become an overpopulated state.

Is even Prime Minister Narendra Modi guilty according to you?

I want to ask him how much has the promise he had made as the prime ministerial candidate in 2014 to make Assam free from illegal migrants from Bangladesh been fulfilled? He had promised that after May 16 in that year, after he assumed charge as prime minister, all illegal Bangladeshis living in Assam would be deported with their bags and baggage. Has he been able to keep that promise? He, instead, has now welcomed them and wants to give them citizenship.

The bigger question is why did he take this step against Assam and its people? If he has the courage, I dare him to go back to 1951 (the base year for updating of the National Register of Citizens) as the cutoff date in the amendment bill.

You are one of the signatories of the Assam Accord and served as chief minister for two terms. Did you ever imagine that the Citizenship Act could be amended someday violating the Accord?

Never. The Accord after it was signed received unanimous support from all parties in Parliament. There was no apprehension then.

The bill seeks to give citizenship to six minority religious communities who have faced religious persecution in their country of origin. Was this part of the Accord?

No. When we signed the Accord in 1985 there was no mention of giving citizenship to victims of religious persecution. There is only a cutoff date. A wave of religious persecution happened in Bangladesh soon after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was murdered in 1975. After that governments of both Bangladesh and India have been maintaining that there is no more religious persecution in Bangladesh. Today BJP has suddenly started talking of religious persecution against Hindus in Bangladesh just for the sake of the bill.

Your party, AGP, entered an alliance with BJP just before 2016 assembly elections. Wasn’t the Accord a part of that alliance partnership?

Yes. We did bring up the issue of the Accord and we said that it has to be protected and implemented. BJP promised us that they would implement the Accord, word by word, in letter and spirit.

What now for Assam with protests refusing to die out?

What can the people of Assam do when they have a government in New Delhi which does not understand the language of democracy? If the bill is passed, people of Assam will have one option – to approach the court. Our democratic protests will continue though. Because of such governments which do not understand the language of democracy, so many undemocratic movements are growing in the country today.