[Assam] Revival of AGP

[Pradip Kumar Datta]

EDITORIAL 
  
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  MESSAGE FOR TODAY
In politics, there is no use looking beyond the next fortnight.
— Joseph Chamberlain

Revival of AGPThe Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), formed after the signing of the historic Assam Accord in 1985, has so far failed to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of the indigenous people of the State and now the regional force is a divided house with personality clashes between the leaders resulting in split in the party ranks. However, on the positive side, the present leadership of the party has initiated steps to take the opinion of cross section of the people of the state, particularly of the prominent persons, who were directly or indirectly involved with the Assam agitation to revive the party. This is indeed a positive step as a strong opposition is a must for healthy democracy and one hopes that the leaders of the regional party will give due importance to the suggestions offered by the prominent personalities of the state and act accordingly to strengthen the party and work in the overall interest of the indigenous people of Asom in the days to come. To strengthen
 the party, the leaders of the party must set aside their personal differences and work together and efforts must be made to bring all the regional parties on a common platform on the basis of common issues concerning the State. The party will also have to publicly admit the mistakes that it had made during its two tenures in power and take a pledge of not repeating the mistakes to make the AGP acceptable to the people of the State once again.

The AGP was formed with the main aim of implementing the Assam Accord, but during its two tenures in power, the party failed to take any positive step in this regard, which disillusioned the people of the State. Of course, a State Government cannot solve the problem of infiltration of foreigners without the help of the Government of India, but what is unfortunate is that the AGP even failed to put adequate pressure on the Centre for the solution of the problem, which posed a threat to the identity of the indigenous people of Asom. During this tenure, the AGP was part of the Central Government twice, once during the tenure of VP Singh as the Prime Minister and once during the tenure of the United Front Government at the Centre. The party should have taken the opportunity to take some concrete steps for the solution of the problem of infiltration of foreigners and at least the process of construction of border fencing and roads should have been expedited. The AGP should have
 also taken advantage of its position in the Central Government to scrap the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, which posed hurdles in the way of detection and deportation of foreigners from the state. But unfortunately, it seems that solution to the problem of infiltration of foreigners was never on the top of the agenda of the AGP during its two terms in power in the state.

Interestingly, the AGP also failed to adopt any clear-cut policy on its alliances with other parties. In the 1996 Assembly polls, the AGP forged an alliance with the Left parties, but in the 2001 polls, the AGP did a complete u-turn and dumped the Left to form an alliance with the BJP. The alliance with the BJP did not last long after the defeat of the alliance in the polls and before the 2006 Assembly polls, the AGP once again came into an electoral understanding with the Left parties, only to be defeated again. In between, media reports of the AGP leaders holding talks with the office bearers of the newly formed Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) also caused confusion in the minds of the people of the state. To regain the confidence of the people, the AGP must adopt a clear stand on its political agenda. Moreover, repeated splits in the party over differences of opinion among its leaders also harmed the cause of the regional force, but unfortunately, the party leaders
 have not realized the lessons from its past mistakes. The split in the party resulted in its defeat in the 1991 polls and though two factions of the regional force joined hands later and the party came back to power in 1996, it suffered splits yet again, which resulted in loss of faith of the common people on the AGP and in some parts of the state, the BJP gained ground because of the failure of the AGP to take up the issue of infiltration of foreigners forcefully.
            
























  
 
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