The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Saturday ruled out a return to the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party unless the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, is scrapped.
The regional party also criticised the Congress for shedding “crocodile tears” for the indigenous people of Assam feeling threatened by the Bill. The Congress had offered the AGP a common platform for fighting the BJP’s “communal agenda”.
“There is no question of rethinking about the alliance that we walked out of unless the Bill is killed,” AGP legislator Ramendra Narayan Kalita said, while reminding the Congress of its move in 2011 to pave the way for citizenship to Hindu migrants from Bangladesh.
The AGP, which launched an anti-Bill protest on Friday, vowed to intensify the agitation. The party’s general secretary Satyabrata Kalita said 70% of the BJP legislators in Assam were against the Bill but have been gagged by the party leadership.
Published - January 19, 2019 10:32 pm IST
