AGP sets terms to BJP leadership

Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Feb 16 – Though the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have not formulated any common minimum programme, the regional party has put a series of conditions before the leadership of the national party for fighting the ensuing Lok Sabha polls together. The president of the AGP, Chandra Mohan Patowary, talking to The Assam Tribune here today, said that the regional party has put conditions before the BJP leadership including the Prime Ministerial candidate LK Advani and BJP president Rajnath Singh and they assured to deal with the problems concerning the people of Assam if the BJP led alliance comes to power at the Centre.

Patowary said that the first condition of the AGP was that the international border with Bangladesh should be sealed on priority basis to prevent infiltration of foreigners. He admitted that during the previous tenure of the NDA Government at the Centre, the international border could not be sealed, but “this time the situation is different as everyone has understood the threat to the security of the nation because of the porous international border. We are hopeful that if the BJP led alliance comes to power, it would take effective steps for sealing of the border.”

The second condition of the AGP is that if it comes to power, the BJP should take up the issue of deportation of Bangladeshi nationals with the Government of the neighbouring country. Patowary pointed out that even if Bangladeshi nationals are detected in Assam, it is difficult to push them back as the Government of Bangladesh refuses to accept them and India must take up the issue strongly. The third condition is that the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of 1951 should be expedited and photo identity cards should be given to all Indian citizens on the basis of that.

The AGP also called upon the BJP leaders to start meaningful dialogue with all the militant groups for political solution of the problem of insurgency and to treat flood and erosion as national problems. Patowary said that the BJP leaders assured the AGP that if the NDA comes to power, the issues raised by the regional party would get due attention.

Commenting on the controversy regarding the Guwahati Lok Sabha seat, Patowary expressed the hope that the issue would be settled amicably through talks. It may be mentioned here that the AGP and BJP have not been able to break the deadlock regarding the seat and Patowary said that he has already instructed his party members not to make controversial statements on the issue. He said that he has also requested the BJP president to issue similar instructions to his party members.

Patowary also revealed that the AGP would be able to announce its list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls within this month. He said that the Central committee of the party has asked the district units to send their suggestions and the list of candidates would be prepared on the basis of that.

The AGP president said that the AGP has not yet decided to join the NDA and “we are only sharing seats with the BJP.” He also said that no decision on Kokrajhar seat has yet been taken and discussions are on with the Bodoland People’s Progressive Front (BPPF) in this regard. source: assam tribune