Opposition slams UPA for Assam violence

NEW DELHI: Opposition today said the inability to check infiltration from Bangladesh was the "greatest failure" of the UPA government on a matter of national security, alleging that it has led to the ethnic violence in Assam. "The violence in Assam should not be seen as a communal incident.

Let no one regard it as a Hindu versus Muslim affair or a tribal versus non-tribal one. The basic issue is between Indians and the infiltrators from across the border," senior BJP leader L K Advani said in the Lok Sabha. Initiating a debate on an adjournment motion on infiltration and recent clashes in Kokrajhar and other areas of Assam, he said out of a total population of about three crore in the state, "between three to four lakh people have been rendered homeless. This is something unprecedented."

The motion was admitted by Speaker Meira Kumar after the Question Hour was adjourned with opposition members wanting an immediate discussion on the issue. Pointing out that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had said the state was "sitting on a volcano", Advani said "if immediate steps are not taken, then similar situation will arise again."

He also referred to an article written by Election Commissioner H S Brahma which said that Assam was sitting on a huge tinder box. Referring to the "unabated" infiltration over the past several years, he said it was not a matter to be handled just by the state government. "I cannot think of a greater failure of the Central government than this. ... It is the greatest failure and is a grave crisis for national security."

Observing that the issue of infiltration had first been raised by the Assam students agitation in early 1980s, he said the Supreme Court had also scrapped the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act maintaining that the government was "colluding with external aggression" by not taking any action to prevent infiltration.