PPFA bats for publicdebate on 1951 as cut off year Guwahati: As the debate over the cut-off year for detection& deportation of illegal migrants from Assam gains momentum, Patriotic People’sFront Assam (PPFA) came out with the arguments for 1951 as the base year.However, the forum reaffirmed that it would abide by the guidelines of theSupreme Court of India as the matter is still in its jurisdiction.It may be noted that the accord, which was signed after sixyears long Assam Movement to deport each & every illegal migrant oferstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), had agreed to grant citizenship tothe those nationals who entered Assam before 25 March 1971, even though themovement was materialized with the target of 1951.Need not to mention that few million East Pakistani peopleentered Assam after 1951 till Bangladesh was emerged as a sovereign nation on 16December 1971, the day when the Pakistani forces under the leadership of AAKNiazi surrendered to Indian commander General Jagjit Singh Aurora. Their Fatherof the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman only declared independence of Bangladesh inthe late hours of 25 March 1971.Since the emergence of Assam Accord, Assam SanmilitaMahasanga (ASM) continued raising voices for 1951 as the bottom year, which waslater supported by Assam Public Works, All Assam Ahom Association, IndigenousTribal People’s Front, Purbotar Hindustani Sanmelan, Prabrajan Virodhi Manchaetc.However, All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Asom GanaParishad (AGP) maintain their stand in favour of 25 March 1971 as the cut-offdate for identification and deportation of illegal migrants under the provisionsof the historic accord. Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind’s Assam unit along with the AIUDFand Congress supports the same year of 1971.“We must not forget that all the Assam movement martyrsstarting with Khargeswar Talukder sacrificed their lives for 1951 as base year.So respecting those martyrs the cut-off year should be advanced without changingother clauses of the accord,” said a statement issued by PPFA adding that apublic debate over the vital issue becomes the need of the hour. Issued by Rupam Barua, Nava Thakuria, JagadindraRaichoudhury, Pramod Kalita, Girindra Kr Karjee, Anup Sarma, Jahnabi Goswami, Suresh Ranjan Goduka,Ravindra Nath, Dayal Kr Nath, Dibson Barua, Gitika Talukder, Ujjal Saikia, Tarali Chakrabarty etc for PPFA
_______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [email protected] http://lists.assamnet.org/listinfo.cgi/assam-assamnet.org
