The All Assam Students’ Union on Thursday decided to intensify its movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the state.
AASU took the decision in its executive meeting convened to discuss the recent developments on the bill and its future course of action. This, however, will be finalised after an executive meeting of North East Students’ Organisation (Neso), of which AASU is a constituent, here on Friday.
The Union cabinet had the given green signal to the bill, which seeks to grant citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim religious minorities from neighbouring countries, on Wednesday, less than 12 hours after Union home minister Amit Shah held talks with AASU on Tuesday. The Centre is likely to place the bill in Parliament next week.
AASU leaders had expressed displeasure over the meeting with Shah and launched a three-day state-wide protest from Wednesday.
AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said on Thursday, “We had hoped the Union home minister would feel our pain and understand our arguments. The discussion was a drama. It proved how the Centre betrays the people of Assam.”
He said the Union cabinet’s clearance indicates that Centre wants to bulldoze the anti-bill movement in Assam. “It proves what we have been saying so long — that the Centre has a stepmotherly attitude towards us,” he alleged.
He said everyone in the state was worried about the bill and there was no option other than launching a mass movement against it.
Protests: The AASU, along with 29 allied organisations, took out a massive mass rally through Tangla town in Udalguri district on Thursday.
Thousands of people from all walks of life, young and old, joined the rally and walked in a peaceful procession for more than 7km from and to Tangla High Secondary playground. They raised slogans against the bill and the government.
AASU assistant general secretary Jayanta Kumar Bhattacharjya said, “Assam is not a dumping ground for illegal immigrants. We will never accept the bill which violates the spirit of the 1985 Assam Accord that clearly lays down that anyone who entered Assam after March 24, 1971 will be treated as a foreigner. We will never take the burden of Bangladeshi Hindu foreigners. Will the supreme sacrifice of the 855 martyrs of Assam Movement go in vain?”
He warned the Centre against imposing the “unconstitutional” bill or be ready to face the consequences. He dared the AGP and the Bodoland People’s Front, allies in the BJP-led state government, to come out in solidarity with the people of the state in this hour of crisis and save the Assamese language, culture and community.
“Assam is a land of Srimanta Xankardeb and Azan Fakir. Hindus and Muslims live in synchrony here. If communal forces try to create tension, they will face the wrath of the people. The Assamese must not be taken for granted. The Ahoms had repelled the mighty Mughals and, if the situation demands, we too will lay down our lives for our motherland,” he thundered.
Speaker after speaker pledged not to accept the “unconstitutional, non-secular” bill.
The president of the Udalguri chapter of the Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association, Deep Tanti, said, “We will never accept the bill which is detrimental to Assamese society and seeks to create divisions on the lines of religion.”
The vice-president of the Udalguri chapter of Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), Niloy Chaliya, said, “The bill undermines the fundamental tenets of the Constitution and violates the Assam Accord. It is a conspiracy by the communal forces to create division and unrest among the people.”
Binoy Kumar Medhi, a senior citizen who joined the protest, said, “We will never accept a bill that diminishes the native Assamese into a second-class citizen. The government should have respected the sentiments of the people. How can there be a bill which is detrimental to secularism, one of the core principles of the Constitution?”
He lamented that regionalism had been compromised in Assam.
Medhi said the AGP, which should have led the anti-bill protest, was clinging to power and, hence, acting at the behest of the BJP.
The Jorhat Bar Association took out a rally from its office at 11.30am.
The protesters shouted slogans and submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the deputy commissioner. The All Tai Ahom Students Union, Jorhat district unit, burnt effigies of Modi, Shah and chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal. “We will never accept the bill which is against the Assam Accord, and the spirit of democracy,” one of them said.
Bandh call: The All Chutia Students’ Union announced a 12-hour Assam bandh from 5am on December 9. Its general secretary Mahen Bora said the people of Assam would not succumb to the Centre’s conspiracy.
While the organisations protested, BJP Assam unit president Ranjeet Kumar Dass claimed that the intensity of anti-CAB protests had come down in the state.
Zoramthanga meet: Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday and discussed a wide range of issues, including the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. Mizoram has also been witnessing massive protests against the bill.
Additional reporting by Shajid Khan in Udalguri and Devajit Baruah in Jorhat.