Guwahati: Calling Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma a ‘habitual liar’, Congress leader and former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi alleged Monday that the BJP leader had lied in the Assembly about the Assam Accord despite submitting an affidavit in the Supreme Court with 1971 as the cut-off year for detecting and deporting illegal immigrants.
Gogoi accused Sarma, who was his former cabinet colleague, of ‘misleading’ people of the state with ‘false explanations’.
Gogoi’s comments came a day after the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) had made similar allegations against Sarma. It said he had lied in the Assembly by claiming there was no mention of March 24, 1971 cut-off date in the Accord.
“Himanta Biswa Sarma lied in the Assembly that the Accord did not say anything about 1971. Lying is his habit. What more can we expect when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi lies on everything,” Gogoi told reporters here.
“Himanta is misleading the people of Assam to deviate the movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Himanta himself had submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court July 14, 2015 on fixing 1971 as base year for the NRC update work. It is strange that now he is saying that there is no mention of 1971 in the Accord,” Gogoi added.
The former chief minister asked how was the Foreigners’ Tribunals conducting trials for suspected illegal immigrants coming to Assam after March 24, 1971 if there was no mention of the cut-off date in Assam Accord.
Sarma had said January 13 in the Assembly that the amended Citizenship Act does not violate the Assam Accord, but is aimed at addressing the ‘unresolved’ issues of the pact.
AASU chief adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya had Sunday 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 January 13.
PTI