City walls, ‘gamochas’ become scrolls of protests in Assam
GUWAHATI: The traditional Assamese ‘gamocha’ is a veritable symbol of pride for the state, but of late this sartorial heritage has also become a scroll of protest for people agitating against the amended citizenship law.
With the mobile internet suspended here for the past eight days, protesters have been spilling their anger and resentment against the highly emotive Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), now an Act, on public walls and ‘gamochas’.
Rajya Sabha had passed the contentious bill on December 11 completing the legislative process for giving Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, plunging Assam into a huge chaos, as violent protests had erupted across the state.
Guwahati, being the epicentre of the agitation, witnessed protests marches and countless bonfires lit up in the streets across the city till December 12 night, bringing the bustling town to a standstill.
Seeking to check spread of rumour and maintain law and order, authorities had clamped indefinite curfew in Guwahati and suspended internet connection in 10 districts, including Kamrup (Metro) on December 11 evening. Guwahati falls in Kamrup (Metro) district.
As people could not take to social media to vent their ire, many people who opposed the bill spray-painted ‘anti-CAB’ and ‘anti-BJP’ messages on walls in prominent places and inner areas to register their protest, locals said.
While the curfew was lifted on Tuesday morning, mobile internet services are still suspended, even as peaceful protests against CAA, led by All Assam Students’
Union (AASU) continues at various public squares.
On prominent Md Tyabullah Road skirting the Dighali Pukhuri, a stretch of walls of private homes, commercial ventures or quarters of Cotton University Professors’ Colony, seems like a giant protest scroll with ‘No CAB’ splattered all over it.
“We Assamese totally opposed the bill, and now want the Act to be revoked. Mobile internet has been shut since December 11 evening. People also express their sentiments and resentment on social media. But, I guess, these public walls are symbols of protest now,” said Chinmoy Deka, an Assamese youth, who often visits Dighali Pukhuri, a popular hangout place in Guwahati.
The area also neighbours Guwahati High Court and the sprawling Latasil playground, one of the main venues of the ongoing protests, and one can see and feel the heightened sense of resentment of people against this legislation.
While ‘NO CAB’ in giant English or Assamese letters remains the dominant message painted on walls in black or crimson, across the city, slogans against the BJP government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal also have been painted at many places in Guwahati since the protests began.
So, slogans like ‘Modi Hai Hai’, ‘Sonowal Hai Hai’ could be seen on walls located in prominent G S Road, surrounded by ‘No CAB’ wordings, painted before the bill became an act -- CAA as an assent was given to it by President Ram Nath Kovind on December 13.
On walls facing the serene Dighali Pukuri and other places, the anger of people against the Centre and state government is unmistakable, while sense of Assamese pride symbolised in the cry of ‘Jai Ai Ahom’ (Hail Mother Assam) punctuate the protest scrolls on walls.