Congress will never implement CAA at any cost, thunders Rahul

SIVASAGAR: Congress MP from Wayanad Rahul Gandhi today categorically stated that Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 will not be implemented at any cost if his party comes to power in Assam.

With a gamocha (traditional Assamese scarf) hung around his shoulders with the sign of a struck off CAA printed on it, the senior Congress leader showed it to a packed Boarding Field crowd here today to say: “All of us on the dais are wearing this. You know what does this mean? CAA will not be implemented at any cost. I repeat, CAA will never be implemented.” He was here to blow the party’s poll bugle today.

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He said the CAA was nothing but “another attempt” of the ruling BJP to “divide and polarise the nation” on religious lines. “The BJP and the RSS have also adopted the British divide-and-rule policy. Keeping the people engaged in polarisation and communal hatred, the Narendra Modi government is doing nothing but business for a couple of fellow Gujaratis,” he said.

His speech almost triggered an anti-CAA agitation at the Boarding Field here jam packed with party supporters.

About the dilution of the historic Assam Accord with the introduction of the CAA, Gandhi said: “I assure you once again that we, including myself and all the Congress leaders here, will protect the Assam Accord. We will implement it in toto. There is only the issue of illegal migrants. It can be resolved through talks and discussions.”

The Assam Accord’s implementation has hit a stumbling block over a definition of indigenous Assamese in its Clause 6. The clause stipulates constitutional safeguard to the Assamese people.

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Although a high level committee was constituted by the Centre to suggest ways to implement the Clause 6 and it submitted its report with the state government a year ago, it never reached the Union home ministry. Home minister Amit Shah had recently said in the Parliament that the committee’s recommendations were yet to reach his ministry.

Frustrated by the government’s attitude, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), which was also part of the committee, had in August last year revealed the details of the confidential report.