Guwahati, June 11: Congress MP from Dhubri, Rakibul Hussain, launched a sharp attack on Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday, accusing him of spreading fear among citizens by conflating the Foreigners Act with the Citizenship Act.
Addressing a press conference at Rajiv Bhawan, Hussain alleged that Sarma is using confusion around the NRC and Assam Accord to deflect from his government’s failures.
“We strongly condemn the Chief Minister’s attempts to intimidate the public by blurring the lines between the Foreigners Deportation Act and the Indian Citizenship Act,” Hussain said. “This is unconstitutional and against the spirit of the Assam Accord, which clearly set March 25, 1971, as the cutoff date for identifying illegal migrants.”
He reminded that the Congress had always supported the detection and deportation of foreigners based on the Assam Accord. He recalled the historic consensus between the Congress government, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), and civil society that led to the NRC process being initiated under the Citizenship Act during the tenure of then Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“The NRC was not a random move,” he emphasized. “It went through hearings, document verification, and was supervised by the Supreme Court. The final list was published on August 31, 2019. And on September 2, the Ministry of Home Affairs clarified that everyone—whether included or excluded—would continue to enjoy full rights until final decisions were made.”
Hussain questioned the Chief Minister’s contradictory stance. “He now discredits the NRC, even though his government supported the 2001 census as a valid base for the delimitation exercise. If citizens from 2001 are valid, why is the NRC being undermined? What is he trying to achieve?”
He warned that the recent mixing of laws, including talk of enforcing the 1950 Foreigners Act, is a calculated distraction. “This is an attempt to fog the political environment and distract people from the fact that the government has failed to fulfil its promises—20 lakh jobs, ST status for six ethnic groups, and increased tea wages. Nothing has materialized.”
Hussain didn’t stop at policy criticism. He accused the Chief Minister of adopting authoritarian tactics, likening him to former Telangana CM K. Chandrashekar Rao. “They silence dissent, harass journalists, and go after opposition leaders. But the tide can turn—as we’ve seen in Telangana where Revanth Reddy, once jailed, is now Chief Minister.”
He also alleged that the current administration is working to dilute the political strength of various indigenous communities. “The Ahom, Moran, Matak, Chutia, and Koch-Rajbongshi communities all feel betrayed. Their representation is being systematically weakened through delimitation and neglect.”
Hussain ended with a pointed jab at the BJP’s treatment of Bengali Hindus. “They voted for the BJP en masse. Yet today, not a single Bengali Hindu is a minister in the Brahmaputra Valley. Under Congress, there were four. This government has failed every community it courted.”
