Assam Minister Accuses Opposition Leaders of Misleading Supreme Court Lawyer Kapil Sibal

Assam cabinet minister Pijush Hazarika has said that opposition leaders from the state met with Supreme Court lawyer Kapil Sibal and may have fed him wrong information about the state which may have resulted in Sibal's astonishing statement in the Supreme Court. Hazarika said that new age 'Badan Phukans' are conspiring to make the state appear as part of Myanmar. 

Noteworthy here is that during a recent hearing in the Supreme Court on the Citizenship Act, senior lawyer Kapil Sibal had stated that Assam was once historically a part of Myanmar.

Addressing a political rally today, Hazarika said that recently Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Bhupen Borah, Congress leader Rokibul Hussain, Assam Jatiya Parishad chief Lurinjyoti Gogoi and Raijor Dal leader Akhil Gogoi met Kapil Sibal recently. Hazarika questioned if these leaders had fed wrong information to Sibal which may led to him making the controversial statement. 

Hazarika said that people of the state have to identify new 'Badan Phukans' who are traitors and may have conspired to make Assam appear as a part of Myanmar. He said just Badan Phukan once brought in the Myanmarese to attack on Assam, people must be aware of new age Badan Phukans who are conspiring against the people of the state. 

This comes after senior advocate Kapil Sibal while commencing his submissions on behalf of the respondents with regard to a series of petitions challenging Section 6A of the Citizenship Act of 1955 said that the migration of the population is embedded in history and cannot be mapped.

"Migration of people in the population is embedded in history and cannot be mapped. Assam was a part of Myanmar and then the British conquered a part of it and that is how Assam was handed over to the British you can now imagine the amount of movement of people that took place and under the partition, East Bengal and Assam became one and Bengali language was being taught in schools where there was large scale opposition. The interaction and absorption of the Bengali population in Assam has a historical context", Sibal says. 

Further citing his example, Sibal said, "We (Sibals) were also displaced from Lahore and my maternal grandparents were killed. We also came here and when partition took place, people from Bengali ethnicity etc will obviously try to come.. so saying that this disrupted the cultural ambience of Assam is Constitutionally unavailable and I have the complete fundamental right to move from one part of the country to another."

Noteworthy is that Congress leader Debabarata Saikia had yesterday shot off a letter to Kapil Sibal where he criticised him for the comment and also demanded for a public apology. Prior to this, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had also targeted Sibal by saying that people who dont know history should not be speaking about it.