Protests lined up in NE after CAA rules notified
Organisations representing indigenous communities call for united fight against Act; Congressled Opposition alliance of 16 political parties announces a noncooperation movement from today
The notification of rules for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 has sparked protests in Assam and elsewhere in the Northeast.
Members of organisations representing indigenous communities burnt copies of the CAA notification in some parts of Assam on Monday evening as the police sounded a high alert across the State and put barricades in place to offset a rerun of the violent antiCAA protests in 2019 that left five persons, including a minor, dead.
Led by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), 30 organisations have appealed to people to put up a united fight against the controversial Act while the Congressled Opposition alliance of 16 political parties announced a Statewide ‘hartal’ or noncooperation movement from Tuesday.
The political parties and NGOs have refrained from calling a bandh given the Gauhati High Court’s 2019 order that makes losses incurred due to shutdowns and damage to public property recoverable from people behind such stirs.
“Riding its numerical strength in Parliament, the government headed by the dictatorial BJP has imposed the CAA on us. This Act will bring doom for the indigenous people of Assam and the rest of the northeast,” AASU president Utpal Sarma said.
“The CAA, which threatens the language, culture, and existence of the Assamese people, cannot be accepted at any cost,” he said.
The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chhatra Parishad condemned the Centre’s decision and threatened to intensify the agitation. “We will intensify our protests from Tuesday by burning the effigies of the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister. We cannot allow the Hindu Bangladeshis to be dumped on us,” the organisation’s leader, Palash Changmai said.
ActivistturnedMLA Akhil Gogoi, who spent months in jail on charges of instigating the 2019 antiCAA violence, said the CAA was an assault on the Assamese community. “The BJP is attacking Assam via this Act like the Mughals did. I appeal to the people to come together to protest against the implementation of the CAA peacefully and democratically,” he said.
Senior Congress leader Debabrata Saikia pointed out that the CAA, paving the way for faster citizenship for nonMuslims who came from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan till December 31, 2014, was a mockery of the Assam Accord of 1985 prescribing March 24, 1971, as the cutoff date for accepting those who entered Assam illegally.
“The people to be granted citizenship by the CAA can stay in Assam, buy land and property, and enjoy all facilities. [Narendra] Modiji had ahead of the 2014 [Lok Sabha] election said all illegal immigrants would be driven out of the country if he became the Prime Minister. After 10 years, he is now allowing the same set of people to come to Assam and become citizens,” he said.
Protests have also been lined up in the other northeastern States, specifically Meghalaya and Tripura, by the North East Students’ Organisation.