New Delhi: Condemning the government`s "hurry" in introducing a constitutional amendment bill to ratify the land boundary deal with Bangladesh, BJP on Thursday demanded pending issues with the neighbouring country, including infiltration and fencing of border, be resolved before the agreement is put into operation.
The Opposition party also criticised Deputy Chairman P J Kurien for introducing the bill in Rajya Sabha despite strong reservations expressed its leader Arun Jaitley who had said that the bill "violated" the basic structure of Constitution.
"The Bill was rushed through in a most arbitrary manner. We totally disapprove of it, condemn it. It was not on the agenda. We wanted that the government should work out a consensus and told them so," party`s spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.
Flanked by all four of its Lok Sabha MPs from Assam, Prasad said India would give away 17,000 acre land to Bangladesh and will get only 7000 acre in return, according to the bill.
"This (giving land) is the last thing you can do. Pending issues need to be resolved first," he told reporters.
Party MPs said Congress had introduced the bill for "appeasement", a hint at winning over Muslim votes, due to coming elections.
"There are pending border issues. International border is yet not demarcated. So much of infiltration from Bangladesh is coming into Assam which is changing our demography. All these things need to be resolved first," Bijoya Chakravarty, Guwhati MP, said.
Jaitley had written to the Secretary General of the Upper House, seeking permission to oppose the Constitution (One Hundred and Nineteenth) Amendment Bill, 2013.
"My objection is based on the fact that after 1973 when the concept of basic structure of the Constitution was evolved in the Kesavanand Bharati case, Parliament has no jurisdiction to alter the territory of India. The territory represents the sovereignty... And is thus Jaitley had said.
