Guwahati, June 11: Congress MP from Dhubri, Rakibul Hussain, on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, accusing him of deliberately creating confusion by conflating the Foreigners Act with the Citizenship Act to instill fear among citizens.
Speaking at a press conference held at Rajiv Bhawan, Hussain alleged that the Chief Minister is using the controversy around the NRC and the Assam Accord as a smokescreen to hide his government’s failures.
“We strongly condemn the Chief Minister’s attempts to intimidate the public by blurring the lines between the Foreigners Deportation Act and the Indian Citizenship Act,” Hussain said. “This is unconstitutional and goes against the spirit of the Assam Accord, which clearly stated March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date for identifying illegal migrants.”
Reaffirming the Congress party’s long-standing support for the detection and deportation of foreigners under the Assam Accord framework, Hussain recalled the historic consensus involving the Congress-led government, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), and civil society that led to the NRC process, initiated during the tenure of former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“The NRC was no arbitrary move,” he said. “It underwent rigorous verification, hearings, and was overseen by the Supreme Court. The final list came out on August 31, 2019, and on September 2, the Ministry of Home Affairs clarified that all individuals—whether included or excluded—would retain full rights until a final decision was made.”
Hussain took aim at what he called the Chief Minister’s contradictory stance on the NRC. “He discredits the NRC now, yet his government uses the 2001 census as the base for the delimitation process. If the 2001 data is valid, why discredit NRC? What exactly is he trying to do?”
He accused the government of trying to cloud public understanding with talk of enforcing the 1950 Foreigners Act. “It’s a deliberate distraction to hide the government’s broken promises—20 lakh jobs, ST status for six ethnic groups, higher wages for tea workers. None of it has been delivered.”
Drawing a political parallel, Hussain compared Sarma to former Telangana CM K. Chandrashekar Rao, accusing him of suppressing dissent, targeting journalists, and harassing opposition leaders. “But remember—Revanth Reddy, once jailed, is now the CM of Telangana. The tide can turn here too.”
Hussain further alleged that the government is systematically weakening indigenous communities such as the Ahom, Moran, Matak, Chutia, and Koch-Rajbongshis through neglect and the delimitation process.
He concluded with a pointed remark on the BJP’s treatment of Bengali Hindus. “They voted en masse for the BJP, yet today, there’s not a single Bengali Hindu minister from the Brahmaputra Valley. Under Congress, there were four. This government has failed every community it courted.”
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