‘Come what may, CAA won’t happen’: Rahul kicks off Assam poll

GUWAHATI: On his first campaign visit to poll-bound Assam, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Sunday that the party won’t allow implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that has sparked protests in the past in the northeastern state. Addressing a rally at the Boarding Field sports facility in Sivasagar, he said the legislation, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to religious minorities from the Muslim-majority nations of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, was a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ploy to divide the people.

“We are wearing a gamcha (traditional Assamese towel) today where letters CAA have been written and marked with a cross. It signifies that come what may, CAA won’t happen. Illegal immigration is an issue, but Assam’s people have the capability to resolve this problem together with talks.” There’s fear among a large section in Assam that if CAA is implemented, it would lead to large-scale influx of people from Bangladesh. Violent protests against the legislation in the state in December 2019 claimed five lives. Stressing that the Congress will uphold and defend the Assam Accord, signed in 1985 after a six-year agitation against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Gandhi said the BJP was trying to do away with the accord, divide the state and implement the CAA.

Accusing the BJP-led government of Assam of exploiting tea garden workers and giving benefit to businessmen from Gujarat, Gandhi promised that if the Congress comes to power in the state it would increase daily wage of tea workers from present ₹167 to ₹365. “A mere ₹167 to tea workers and tea gardens to Gujarat businessmen. That’s why BJP wants to divide the state so that its resources can be stolen and given to others,” he said.

Gandhi recalled how he learned a lot about Assam’s diverse communities, languages and cultures from former chief minister Tarun Gogoi (who passed away in November) during his visits to the state.

“The BJP government at Centre has hurt the people of Assam by putting Gogoi, who gave his entire life for the state in the same category of Padma awardees list with a bureaucrat who had served the PM Modi’s office. This was not a right thing,” he said.