The Hindu : National : Assam minorities hoodwinked, says Front

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 25, 2005

National

National

Assam minorities hoodwinked, says Front

Special Correspondent

"Government did not ask for withdrawal of affidavit submitted by previous government to scrap IMDT Act"

GUWAHATI: The United Minorities Front (UMF) on Sunday alleged that the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress Government had never pressed for the withdrawal of the affidavit submitted by the previous Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) Government, which sought the scrapping of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act 1983.

Quoting from the judgment of Supreme Court, UMF president Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury said the court had pointed out that the Assam Government counsel had not pressed for withdrawal of the affidavit submitted by the AGP Government and that the new affidavit filed by the State Government may be treated as "an additional affidavit."

The Supreme Court rejected the plea to treat it as a counter-affidavit to the one submitted by the AGP Government, he said.

Poll consideration

Accusing the Congress of "hoodwinking the minorities," he said the Government had not argued the case with facts and figures and opposed the striking down of the Act only because the party had made a promise in the election manifesto.

"The election manifesto of a political party has no relevance and cannot be taken into consideration for judging the constitutional validity of any enactment, whether made by the State or by the Centre, as it is a purely legal issue and lies within the domain of the judiciary," the judgment stated.

The UMF distributed to presspersons copies of the relevant portion of the judgment and the six-page affidavit filed by the Government.

In the 114-page judgment, the apex court also observed that "apart from making a bald statement that the IMDT Act is not arbitrary or discriminatory and denial of averment that it makes the task of securing the detection and deportation of foreigners impossible or that non-citizens are getting protection to the detriment of bona fide citizens of India, nothing specific is stated nor any specific statement made in the earlier affidavit or the facts and figures supplied therein have been controverted."

"Contradictory stand"

Mr. Choudhury also accused the Congress of adopting a "contradictory stand" on the issue and quoted from the judgment the report of the General Secretaries to the seventh general conference of the North Eastern Congress(I) Co-ordination Committee of July 3, 1992.

The apex court observed that the report recorded that i) there was infiltration, though it was difficult task to examine the precise number ii) the infiltrations were not only by the minorities of Bangladesh but also from majority Muslims.

In absolute terms, the number of Muslims crossing into India was likely to be much larger than that of non-Muslims. iii) ideological support was given to the phenomenon by the Islamic fundamentalists creating the vision of a larger country comprising Bangladesh and the entire North-East where its economic problems would be solved and security ensured, and iv) there was direct correlation between the rise of fundamentalism and increase in influx.

The UMF leader said his party favoured the amendment to the Foreigners Act, 1946 to ensure judicial protection of Indian citizens but added that such an amendment should be made taking all sections of people into confidence.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National