Congress will protect Assam Accord, will not allow CAA: Rahul Gandhi in poll-bound Assam

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said his party would protect Assam Accord signed during his father's tenure in 1985 and will not allow the implementation of the Narendra Modi government's Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

"Come what may, Congress will not allow the CAA. BJP wants to destroy the Assam Accord and divide people on the lines of religion. No force on earth will be allowed to divide Assam. Whoever wants to destroy Assam Accord, people of Assam and Congress will teach them a lesson," Rahul said while addressing a rally in eastern Assam's Sivasagar district, which witnessed strong anti-CAA agitation in December 2019.

Rahul's promise is being seen as Congress' efforts to win the votes of the ethnic communities and the Muslims, many of whom have turned against BJP.

Assembly elections in Assam are slated for April.

The Assam Accord was signed after the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement, promising to solve the problem by detecting and deporting foreigners to Bangladesh. The cut-off date for the detection was decided as March 24, 1971.

But the CAA, which was passed in 2019 seeks to allow non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan till 2014 to apply for Indian citizenship. This angered the ethnic communities in Assam who argue that the CAA would undermine Assam Accord by giving citizenship to post-1971 migrants. They fear that the identity of the ethnic communities would be destroyed by giving citizenship to a large number of post-1971 Hindu Bengali migrants.

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Assam witnessed violent protests against the CAA in December 2019 in which at least five persons died. They demand that the foreigners must be detected as per the Assam Accord, irrespective of religion.

The anti-CAA agitation led Congress to stitch a "grand alliance" with Badruddin Ajmal-led AlUDF and five other parties.

Gandhi said the Narendra Modi government was trying to divide people (by giving citizenship to non-Muslim migrants only) on religious lines, adding that it miserably failed to provide jobs. "The small and medium scale businesses, shop keepers and farmers were destroyed by demonetization and GST. Modi has continuously tried to attack on the jobs front. So he wants to keep the people divided on religious lines so that they don't raise the demand for jobs," Gandhi said.

In an apparent attempt to woo the voters in Assam's tea gardens, Rahul announced that the daily wage of the tea garden workers would be enhanced from Rs 167 at present to Rs 365 if Congress comes back to power in Assam. "Instead of increasing daily wage of the tea garden workers, Modi is handing over the tea gardens to the business groups in Gujarat. The Gujarat-based businessmen are earning while hardworking garden workers in Assam are being exploited," Gandhi said.

Tea garden workers (nearly 60 lakh people) have been demanding that daily wage be enhanced to Rs 351.

The BJP-led government in Assam also recently announced that the daily wage of the tea garden workers would be enhanced very soon.