AIUDF Chief Badruddin Ajmal seeks flexibility in swearing-in ahead of Assam Assembly session due to Hajj

Guwahati (Assam) [India], May 17 : Ahead of the upcoming Assam Legislative Assembly session, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) President Badruddin Ajmal said he has written to the Speaker requesting flexibility in his MLA swearing-in ceremony as the revised session date clashes with his Hajj pilgrimage schedule.

Speaking to the media, Ajmal stated that while the session was initially slated for May 18, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma later announced it would commence on May 21, the same day he is scheduled to leave for Hajj.

"Earlier, the first session was scheduled for May 18, but the CM later announced that it will be held on May 21. I have Hajj on that day. I have written to the Speaker regarding this and also clarifying through the media...my swearing-in will be done as per the convenience of the Speaker," he said.

He also affirmed that his party will oppose the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) during the session. "We will oppose UCC," he said.

Earlier in the day, the AIUDF opposed any move to conduct a new socio-economic or citizenship-related survey in Assam, calling it a "waste of time" that would only cause unnecessary harassment to the public.

Speaking toon the proposal of a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state, AIUDF General Secretary Rafiqul Islam argued that the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which underwent half a decade of intense scrutiny, should be treated as the final word on the matter.

Islam questioned the logic behind initiating a fresh survey when a massive, Supreme Court-monitored exercise had already been concluded."... NRC has already been done in Assam after five years of scrutiny. What more can be bigger than that? It's over. No need for another survey. Doing an SIR will just waste time and trouble people," said Islam.

The AIUDF leader took a swipe at political narratives that claimed millions of illegal immigrants were residing in the state. He pointed out that the final draft of the NRC, published in August 2019, debunked those inflated projections.

Islam further emphasised that even the 19 lakh exclusions are not definitive. "They said there were 90 lakh outsiders, 50 lakh, 70 lakh but in the end, only 19 lakh names were excluded. Even among those, many have parents or siblings included in the NRC, so their names will also be corrected later," he noted, suggesting the actual number of undocumented individuals would shrink even further.

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