Assam: BJP avoids Citizenship Bill, fearing a backlash

Guwahati: Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah kicked off campaign for 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Assam during the week separately but controversial citizenship bill, which had rocked the Northeast for pat few years, was missing from their rhetoric. Even Prime Minister skipped the issue of ongoing updating of National Register of Citizenship in Assam.

Instead of touching these controversial issues, the BJP leadership has kept its focus more on the Assam Accord and Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for six communities of Assam, five of which will play a decisive role in the first phase of the LS election.

The “promise” to grant ST status, for instance, is now a matter BJP is “seriously considering”. In his first address at Moran, in Dibrugarh constituency, Mr Modi said, “The NDA government is seriously considering ST status for six communities — Tai Ahom, Matak, Moran, Chutiya, Koch Rajbon-gshi and tea tribes.” The BJP president Amit Shah also made similar references days before.

It is significant that BJP had made similar “promises” before the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2016 Assam assembly elections too, to win over the six OBC communities, which comprise nearly half the state’s population.

Reiterating what BJP president had said in Ass-am days ago, Mr Modi on Saturdays said only BJP-led NDA can “free Assam and the country of illegal migrants and terrorists”. He added, “On one side is the dumdaar chowkidar  and on the other, a mah-amilavat wala parivar.”

It proposes citizenship for non- Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakis-tan and Afghanistan — something Assam and the northeast have been resisting, on the grounds that the region is already dealing with Bangladeshi migration and does not want a religious angle to be added to what is alr-eady a sensitive matter.

The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha but is set to lapse after BJP could not table it in the Rajya Sabha.

The Prime Minister also skipped talking about NRC, which, anti-citizenship protesters say, would stand nullified if the proposed amendment to the Citizenship Act were passed.

Realizing that these emotive issues may upset the victory mission of saffron brigade, the top BJP leaders are highlighting development angle in their speeches.