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— R Dutta Choudhury The leaders of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) are in upbeat mood after the successful completion of the process of unification of the major regional parties and the return of former stalwarts of the party, but only the unification will not be enough for the regional force to regain the confidence of all sections of people of Assam. To gain the confidence of the people, the AGP will have to strengthen its bases among all sections of people of the State and to assure the masses that the mistakes made in the past will not be repeated.
The return of former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta along with other members of the AGP (P), former Speaker Pulakesh Baruah and former PWD Minister Atul Bora along with other members of the TGP and also of other senior leaders to the partyfold will definitely strengthen the regional party as it is a well established fact that series of divisions in the ranks of the AGP had an adverse impact in the minds of the supporters of regionalism, which, in turn, helped the ruling Congress. A strong opposition is a must for healthy democracy but because of the failure of the AGP to play the role of watchdogs to perfection, the Government seems to be getting complacent in the past couple of years.
One of the main challenges before the present leadership of the AGP will be to keep the party united as personality clashes among the leaders is one of the main reasons for divisions in the party rank in the past. The general house of the AGP adopted a resolution just before the unification that those who would return to the party would not be given any post for a period of three years. The AGP(P) has already expressed its reservation over the resolution and this may lead to problems in the days to come. Of course, the leaders of the AGP including those who returned to the party recently, have realised the fact that they must stay united to pose a challenge to the Congress, but the possibility of differences of opinion cropping up yet again cannot be ruled out. Of course, the AGP president, Chandra Mohan Patowary recently asserted that the services of all those who returned to the AGP would be utilized in the best possible way in the interest of the State, but it remains to be seen whether he manages to keep everyone happy.
Moreover, former AGP president Brindaban Goswami, who was sacked by the general house unceremoniously just a month before the unification, did not attend the unification meet, as he is unhappy over the way he was removed from the post of party president. The present leadership of the AGP will have to ensure that Goswami does not feel unwanted in the party as it may send wrong signal to his supporters within the party in the days to come. The sharp difference with the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on the issue of re-entry of Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is another major worry for the AGP, as being a regional party it cannot afford to antagonise organizations like the students’ bodies. The AGP president has appealed to all organizations including the AASU to extend cooperation to the regional party but till date, the AASU has not budged from its stand and it remains to be seen whether the AGP leaders, most of whom are former leaders of the AASU, manage to persuade the students’ body to soften its stand on the issue of re-entry of the former Chief Minister in the party.
Immediately after the unification, Patowary admitted that the AGP had made mistakes in the past and assured that those mistakes would not be repeated again. But the people of Assam have not forgotten the mistakes made by the AGP during its two tenures in office and it will be hard for the party to assure the people that such mistakes will not be repeated again. One of the major failures of the AGP is its failure to deal with the problem of infiltration of foreigners and it seems that the regional party speaks about the issue only when it is not in power. The AGP was formed mainly to implement all clauses of the Assam Accord, but it failed miserably in dealing with the main clause of the Accord, that is detection and deportation of foreigners. Now the party is claiming that it failed to implement the Accord because of the refusal of the Government of India to extend support to the State Government on the issue. The AGP leaders also claimed that the Central Government did not pay heed to the request to scrap the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, which posed a hurdle in the way of detection and deportation of foreigners. However, the party should clarify what prevented it from launching a movement against the Centre by taking the people of the State into confidence to ensure detection and deportation of foreigners and also for the scrapping of the IMDT Act.
Moreover, the AGP must also face the blame for the delay in sealing of the international border with Bangladesh. Though it is the responsibility of the Government of India to construct border roads and fencing, at the initial stage, the Centre only provided the funds and the State PWD was entrusted with the responsibility of executing the project, implementation of which was vital to prevent fresh infiltration of foreign nationals to Assam. But because of faulty design, the fencing erected by the State PWD in the first phase of the work had to be uprooted and a new fencing is being laid now. This delayed the whole process of completing the border roads and fencing and the AGP must accept the blame for that. The AGP leaders must also clarify what prevented them from updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is vital for detection of foreign nationals.
During its two tenures in power, the AGP also failed to solve other burning problems including the problem of insurgency. The problem of flood and erosion also remained as grave as ever during the tenures of the AGP. It is a fact that it is beyond the resources of the State Government to deal with the problems of floods and erosion but being a party which was formed through a mass movement, the AGP should have been able to launch a movement to put pressure on the Centre to deal with the problems.
Of course, managing to persuade the Government of India to change the funding pattern to the State to 90 per cent grant was a major achievement of the AGP Government, which played a big role in changing the economic scenario of the State.
Now the AGP leadership will have to draw up an action plan to make inroads among all sections of people including the students as merely making public statements will not help the regional party in regaining its lost popularity.source: assam tribune
— R Dutta Choudhury The leaders of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) are in upbeat mood after the successful completion of the process of unification of the major regional parties and the return of former stalwarts of the party, but only the unification will not be enough for the regional force to regain the confidence of all sections of people of Assam. To gain the confidence of the people, the AGP will have to strengthen its bases among all sections of people of the State and to assure the masses that the mistakes made in the past will not be repeated.
The return of former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta along with other members of the AGP (P), former Speaker Pulakesh Baruah and former PWD Minister Atul Bora along with other members of the TGP and also of other senior leaders to the partyfold will definitely strengthen the regional party as it is a well established fact that series of divisions in the ranks of the AGP had an adverse impact in the minds of the supporters of regionalism, which, in turn, helped the ruling Congress. A strong opposition is a must for healthy democracy but because of the failure of the AGP to play the role of watchdogs to perfection, the Government seems to be getting complacent in the past couple of years.
One of the main challenges before the present leadership of the AGP will be to keep the party united as personality clashes among the leaders is one of the main reasons for divisions in the party rank in the past. The general house of the AGP adopted a resolution just before the unification that those who would return to the party would not be given any post for a period of three years. The AGP(P) has already expressed its reservation over the resolution and this may lead to problems in the days to come. Of course, the leaders of the AGP including those who returned to the party recently, have realised the fact that they must stay united to pose a challenge to the Congress, but the possibility of differences of opinion cropping up yet again cannot be ruled out. Of course, the AGP president, Chandra Mohan Patowary recently asserted that the services of all those who returned to the AGP would be utilized in the best possible way in the interest of the State, but it remains to be seen whether he manages to keep everyone happy.
Moreover, former AGP president Brindaban Goswami, who was sacked by the general house unceremoniously just a month before the unification, did not attend the unification meet, as he is unhappy over the way he was removed from the post of party president. The present leadership of the AGP will have to ensure that Goswami does not feel unwanted in the party as it may send wrong signal to his supporters within the party in the days to come. The sharp difference with the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on the issue of re-entry of Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is another major worry for the AGP, as being a regional party it cannot afford to antagonise organizations like the students’ bodies. The AGP president has appealed to all organizations including the AASU to extend cooperation to the regional party but till date, the AASU has not budged from its stand and it remains to be seen whether the AGP leaders, most of whom are former leaders of the AASU, manage to persuade the students’ body to soften its stand on the issue of re-entry of the former Chief Minister in the party.
Immediately after the unification, Patowary admitted that the AGP had made mistakes in the past and assured that those mistakes would not be repeated again. But the people of Assam have not forgotten the mistakes made by the AGP during its two tenures in office and it will be hard for the party to assure the people that such mistakes will not be repeated again. One of the major failures of the AGP is its failure to deal with the problem of infiltration of foreigners and it seems that the regional party speaks about the issue only when it is not in power. The AGP was formed mainly to implement all clauses of the Assam Accord, but it failed miserably in dealing with the main clause of the Accord, that is detection and deportation of foreigners. Now the party is claiming that it failed to implement the Accord because of the refusal of the Government of India to extend support to the State Government on the issue. The AGP leaders also claimed that the Central Government did not pay heed to the request to scrap the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, which posed a hurdle in the way of detection and deportation of foreigners. However, the party should clarify what prevented it from launching a movement against the Centre by taking the people of the State into confidence to ensure detection and deportation of foreigners and also for the scrapping of the IMDT Act.
Moreover, the AGP must also face the blame for the delay in sealing of the international border with Bangladesh. Though it is the responsibility of the Government of India to construct border roads and fencing, at the initial stage, the Centre only provided the funds and the State PWD was entrusted with the responsibility of executing the project, implementation of which was vital to prevent fresh infiltration of foreign nationals to Assam. But because of faulty design, the fencing erected by the State PWD in the first phase of the work had to be uprooted and a new fencing is being laid now. This delayed the whole process of completing the border roads and fencing and the AGP must accept the blame for that. The AGP leaders must also clarify what prevented them from updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is vital for detection of foreign nationals.
During its two tenures in power, the AGP also failed to solve other burning problems including the problem of insurgency. The problem of flood and erosion also remained as grave as ever during the tenures of the AGP. It is a fact that it is beyond the resources of the State Government to deal with the problems of floods and erosion but being a party which was formed through a mass movement, the AGP should have been able to launch a movement to put pressure on the Centre to deal with the problems.
Of course, managing to persuade the Government of India to change the funding pattern to the State to 90 per cent grant was a major achievement of the AGP Government, which played a big role in changing the economic scenario of the State.
Now the AGP leadership will have to draw up an action plan to make inroads among all sections of people including the students as merely making public statements will not help the regional party in regaining its lost popularity.source: assam tribune
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