Guwahati: Two-time Chief Minister and signatory of the Assam accord Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Sunday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to meet him when the BJP government was in process of preparing the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, now converted into an Act. Asserting that there is no alternative for the current government, except for dropping the controversial Act in Assam, the former Chief Minister told reporters, “When I approached him to explain the fallout of this anti-Assam citizenship law, I was asked by the Prime Minister’s office to talk to Union home minister Amit Shah on this subject. It was not only highly disheartening but also reflected his attitude towards Assam.”
Mr Mahanta, who consulted various legal experts in the country on the amendment to the Citizenship Act 1955, said that the controversial amendment in the Act directly violates the basic structure of the Constitution.
Mr Mahanta was the first leader to have brought the proposed amendment to the law into limelight in 2015.
