AGP releases poll manifesto; vows to implement Clause 6 of Assam Accord

GUWAHATI:

A day after the incumbent BJP announced its Sankalpa Patra, its junior ally, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), on Wednesday, came out with its election manifesto, pledging to implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord - a commitment which was missing in the saffron party’s manifesto.

Clause 6 guarantees constitutional safeguards for the indigenous people of Assam.

The regional party, however, went the senior ally’s way, with the manifesto not mentioning the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), which contradicts the Assam Accord regarding the cut-off date for detecting and deporting illegal immigrants.

The AGP ministers in the alliance government had, amid the anti-CAB and anti-CAA protests, opposed the Bill/Act and had even tendered resignations, but the episode faded into oblivion and their resignations, for reasons unknown, never reached the Raj Bhavan.

Meanwhile, BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda, when asked about its current stance on the CAA amid alleged silence, asserted that the CAA was a Central legislation and “no state legislation could change it.”

The AGP is contesting 26 constituencies in the ensuing Assembly elections in the state, besides having friendly contests with BJP in five seats.

Senior AGP leader Birendra Prasad Baishya, during the manifesto release programme here on Wednesday, said that the regional party is committed to implementing the Clause 6 panel’s recommendations in its totality.

The AGP manifesto said that the party would pressure the Centre to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC), even as the BJP had, in its manifesto, assured a corrected NRC after coming to power.

Other commitments in the AGP manifesto include flood control, ensuring rights of the state over its natural resources, curbing corruption, resolving inter-state boundary issues, developing language and culture, employment generation, the welfare of farmers, tea tribes and other backward classes, protection of women and children, emphasis on education, health and special schemes for the elderly and differently-abled.

(Edited by Andre Kongri)

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