Accepting the demand of opposition Congress, the government decided to include enclaves in Assam in the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh.
The Constitutional Amendment Bill is slated to come up for passage in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday and in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu said after the Union Cabinet cleared the bill on Tuesday morning. Now, the LBA will include territories in Assam, along with those in Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya.
Naidu said, “In the larger interest of the country , Assam will be included in the LBA with Bangladesh and fencing will also be done on the border in Assam.“
The Modi government had earlier decided to leave Assam out of the agreement following the BJP state unit's objection to the exchange on the ground that the state would lose more territory than it would get from Bangladesh. The bill introduced in the RS in December 2013 by the Congress-led UPA-2 government included all four border states.
With the government planning to drop Assam from the LBA agenda, Congressruled Assam's CM Tarun Gogoi had protested, campaigning that Assam should be part of the agreement.
Congress members in Parliament took up the issue and communicated to the government that the party would not support the bill if Assam was kept out.
The Centre decided to yield as it does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha and the constitutional amendment needs two-thirds majority in the House, which would not be possible without support from Congress, the largest opposition group.
With BJP having to accept Assam as part of the pact, the message to its unit in Assam, which goes for polls next year, is that Congress had insisted on it and the government gave in. The Centre has also been saying that the Congress had earlier opposed inclusion of Assam enclaves but had now changed its stance to get the better of BJP.
Congress, however, denied the charges and insisted that it had been consistent.
In a historic step, members in the Rajya Sabha buried their ideological divide to unanimously give effect to the Land Boundary Agreement signed between India and Bangladesh in 1974 for exchange of enclaves.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj won the hearts of the entire opposition by crediting the Manmohan Singh government with putting in the hard work. “Manmohan Singh is the one who started the whole thing. I have merely completed the task,“ she said, thanking the former Prime Minister who was present in the House. She pointed out that the bill was exactly the same -to the last comma and full stop -as that presented by UPA in Parliament in December 2013. “It's a win-win-win situation for everyone,“ she said ascribing the quote to leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad Calling the passage of the bill “historic“, Swaraj said it would take India-Bangladesh relations to a new high by settling the 41-year border issue.
The bill, passed by support of 180 members, aims at giving effect to the acquiring of territories by India and transfer of territories to Bangladesh through retaining of adverse possession and exchange of enclaves in accordance with the 1974 agreement. It will be taken up in Lok Sabha on Thursday .
The Constitutional Amendment Bill is slated to come up for passage in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday and in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu said after the Union Cabinet cleared the bill on Tuesday morning. Now, the LBA will include territories in Assam, along with those in Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya.
Naidu said, “In the larger interest of the country , Assam will be included in the LBA with Bangladesh and fencing will also be done on the border in Assam.“
The Modi government had earlier decided to leave Assam out of the agreement following the BJP state unit's objection to the exchange on the ground that the state would lose more territory than it would get from Bangladesh. The bill introduced in the RS in December 2013 by the Congress-led UPA-2 government included all four border states.
With the government planning to drop Assam from the LBA agenda, Congressruled Assam's CM Tarun Gogoi had protested, campaigning that Assam should be part of the agreement.
Congress members in Parliament took up the issue and communicated to the government that the party would not support the bill if Assam was kept out.
The Centre decided to yield as it does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha and the constitutional amendment needs two-thirds majority in the House, which would not be possible without support from Congress, the largest opposition group.
With BJP having to accept Assam as part of the pact, the message to its unit in Assam, which goes for polls next year, is that Congress had insisted on it and the government gave in. The Centre has also been saying that the Congress had earlier opposed inclusion of Assam enclaves but had now changed its stance to get the better of BJP.
Congress, however, denied the charges and insisted that it had been consistent.
In a historic step, members in the Rajya Sabha buried their ideological divide to unanimously give effect to the Land Boundary Agreement signed between India and Bangladesh in 1974 for exchange of enclaves.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj won the hearts of the entire opposition by crediting the Manmohan Singh government with putting in the hard work. “Manmohan Singh is the one who started the whole thing. I have merely completed the task,“ she said, thanking the former Prime Minister who was present in the House. She pointed out that the bill was exactly the same -to the last comma and full stop -as that presented by UPA in Parliament in December 2013. “It's a win-win-win situation for everyone,“ she said ascribing the quote to leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad Calling the passage of the bill “historic“, Swaraj said it would take India-Bangladesh relations to a new high by settling the 41-year border issue.
The bill, passed by support of 180 members, aims at giving effect to the acquiring of territories by India and transfer of territories to Bangladesh through retaining of adverse possession and exchange of enclaves in accordance with the 1974 agreement. It will be taken up in Lok Sabha on Thursday .
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