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Worried over the deteriorating relationship between Raj Bhawan and the Congress government in Assam, Governor Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha has taken pains to emphasise that there was no rift between him and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
An official release issued by Raj Bhawan in Guwahati on Saturday said Gen Sinha "enjoyed a very cordial relation with the chief minister."
The statement follows Gogoi's announcement that he would approach President A P J Abdul Kalam over the governor's comments on 'sensitive political issues'.
The point of contention is the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act. Sinha is in favour of repealing the Act while the Congress government is against any such move.
The Act, applicable only in Assam, puts the onus of proving a persons nationality on the person making the allegation unlike the Foreigners Act, applicable in the rest of the country under which an accused is answerable on the status of his/her nationality.
The governor had recently accused the political leaders and people of Assam of developing an 'ostrich-like attitude' to the threat faced by the state from the illegal influx of Bangladeshis.
Reports have also appeared in the local media to the effect that Sinha is preparing a detailed report about the infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals from across the porous international border for the President's perusal.
Earlier, Sinha had submitted a report on the same subject to former president K R Narayanan on November 8, 1998, local media reports said.
Sinha, who had recently visited the Assam-Bangladesh border in the Barak Valley, is likely to describe how, besides Bangladeshi nationals, fundamentalist elements are also crossing into India.
Reports about the Gogoi-Sinha tussle has already reached the offices of the President, prime minister and deputy prime minister with the secretary of the Asom Gana Parishad Legislature Party Dilip Kumar Saikia writing to them saying that the row would tarnish the credibility of these two high offices.
More reports from Assam
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