Sarbananda Sonowal's Silence Regarding CAB Proves His Hypocrisy: Assam Congress President

Guwahati, September 11, 2019:

Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) President Ripun Bora on Wednesday, while cautioning that the BJP party will attempt to enact the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill soon, asserted that the Congress will continue to stand in opposition to it. Taking potshots at Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, he questioned how the jatiya nayak could stand mum in silence while the contentious Bill was being discussed, while others took a stand.

"The Chief Ministers of Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram took a stand against it, but our leaders, including the jatiya nayak Sarbananda Sonowal and the regional party leader Atul Bora, stayed silent. This proves their hypocrisy", he said.

Addressing the press here, Ripun Bora condemned the BJP for its intention to enact the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and questioned how the Government will protect the rights of the indigenous people by giving citizenship to non-Muslims from neighboring countries. "They (foreigners) will keep pouring in", he cautioned.

He further said that the Bill has been forcibly forced upon the people of the Assam, and added that the BJP has held the people of Assam hostage by threatening to revoke Article 371. Warning that the CAB might be passed by the BJP party, he added that the Congress party will continue to oppose the Bill at all costs.

The senior Congress leader lashed out at the rival BJP party and alleged that the Centre is responsible for the discrepancies for the NRC. "Amit Shah, the Assam Government, are the ones who are responsible", he alleged.

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The Congress leader further lambasted the BJP for crying foul over the NRC, and alleged that the simply want to keep the 'foreigner issue' alive as a means to get votes in elections. 'Why did you not file objections?', Bora asked the BJP leadership, who are complaining about the NRC.

In June of 2018, 41 lakh people were excluded from the NRC, he said, adding that Amit Shah and the NRC had taken credit for the NRC them, claiming it as a "historic" achievement. "They had said they would deport every single foreigner, and had taken credit for the NRC. Not only this, they had promised NRC in every State, which was a poll promise."

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But Bora said that the BJP no longer wants credit for the NRC. He said that the silence of the BJP after the publication of an allegedly flawed NRC proves that the BJP are 'hypocrites'. "They do not want anything to do with it anymore, but they are the ones who

It may be mentioned here that over nineteen lakh people were left out of the final draft NRC, which was published on August 31.

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