The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is split but not fully out because Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, its founder and leader (until recently), stands isolated as the party is back with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam after a brief ‘estrangement’ to Mahanta’s surprise and disapproval. He turned to small regional outfits on the political periphery to support him but interestingly, even the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), of which he was once the spearhead, was indifferent to his appeal.
The trigger for Mahanta’s dissent was the AGP’s decision last week to return to the National Democratic Alliance and contest the Lok Sabha polls together after “walking out” of the coalition last January to protest the BJP’s doggedness to pass the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, in Parliament. Eventually, the Centre put it aside, after the entire north-east rose up in arms because the proposed law would have legalised the citizenship rights of foreigners of every religious denomination living in these states, barring Muslims. To the AGP--whose progenitor, the AASU, led one of independent India’s long-drawn agitation against ‘illegal infiltrators’ from Bangladesh who were domiciled and given voting rights in Assam--the amendment was an abomination because the AASU never recognised ‘infiltrators’ as Hindus and Muslims.