Guwahati, Sep. 13 (PTI): The Opposition Congress on Tuesday asked the BJP-led government in Assam not to "rush" in resolving border disputes with its neighbours for the sake of projecting itself as the "big brother" as it could be detrimental to the state's interest.
The government contended that it was ready to take "tough decisions" to resolve the differences and blamed Congress for lacking the political will to do so when it was in power.
The Congress said that Assam and Meghalaya governments were moving towards solving their inter-state border dispute through bilateral talks and if similar approach of resolving border differences is adopted with other neighbouring states too, Assam will be the loser.
Such disputes should be resolved as per provisions of the Constitution and discussions based on its guidelines, it said.
The issue was raised in Assam Assembly on Tuesday by Congress through a private member's resolution.
The Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia (Cong) said previous attempts during the Congress regime to resolve the differences were not successful as one state or the other refused to abide by the recommendations of various committees formed from time to time to find mutually acceptable solutions.
Lack of success in resolving these disputes should not be allowed to be interpreted as Assam being a dondura jati' (quarrelsome community). Many other states of India too have long pending border disputes.
If the Assam government leaves portions of our territory for the sake of hasty resolution of border disputes and tries to act as the big brother, our state will stand to lose. The government should not rush for reaching any decision, rather it can take more time for amiable solutions, Saikia added.
Congress MLAs Nandita Das, Kamalakshya Dey Purkayastha and Bharat Narah also demanded more "thorough discussions" on the border disputes and maintained that any hasty decision will not be in the long term interest of Assam.
Participating in the discussion, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pijush Hazarika claimed that due to the decades old border disputes with the neighbouring states, many leaders at the Centre view Assam as the "quarrelsome type" when it is actually the victim.
The border dispute is a problem our government got in dowry. But we are committed to solve it, for which a give and take attitude is needed, he added.
Replying to the discussion, Border Protection and Development Minister Atul Bora said short and long term measures should have been taken immediately after the formation of each state from Assam by then-Congress governments to ensure the disputes did not arise.
Congress was in power at the Centre as well as in the North East for long after other states were carved out of Assam. Only political will was needed to resolve the differences.
"Our government is taking a lot of risk in moving ahead for resolving these disputes. We are ready to take tough decisions. We are taking risks which no party in power will normally take. Our government is ready to take tough decisions, Bora said.
He said the wishes of the residents of the disputed areas are given paramount importance as they are the ones who face most of the problems due to the pending issues.
Moreover, any two state cannot take any final decision on the boundary issue. It has to come from the Parliament, Bora, who heads the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), an ally of the BJP-led state government, added.
Assam has disputes regarding its borders with Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram, the states carved out of it, and efforts to resolve them have gained momentum since the incumbent Assam government under Himanta Biswa Sarma came to power in May 2021.
Assam and Meghalaya signed a memorandum of understanding on March 29 in New Delhi in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah for ending the five-decade-old border dispute between them in six of the 12 disputed areas.
Efforts are afoot to take forward the issues in the remaining six areas also.
Assam and Arunachal Pradesh had signed the Namsai Declaration' on July 15 this year under which the two states decided to restrict the disputed villages to 86 instead of the previous 123, and to try to resolve the issues by September 15.
Discussions with Mizoram and Nagaland are also in various stages of progress to arrive at mutually acceptable solutions.