The All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) and 28 other organisations on Thursday staged a agitation at Dispur area protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 in Assam and threatened to isolate the ruling BJP in the next elections in Assam.
Hundreds of people took part in a massive rally organized by the Aasu and other organizations shouting slogans against the BJP led government in Assam and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
“This is just a warning to the BJP led government in Assam today. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 must be cancelled and there cannot be any compromise on that. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal must have the courage to say no to the Bill,” said Aasu adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya while addressing the rally today.
“The BJP has promised to deport the illegal Bangladeshis. But it did not happen. The indigenous people are supposed to get constitutional safeguard. However, nothing happened,” he said adding that the indigenous people are being tortured by the move to execute the proposed constitutional amendment bill.
Aasu president, Dipank Kumar Nath said that the people of Assam voted the BJP in 2016 for a change. “However, the BJP led government is behaving the same way the Congress did. We are not going to accept the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which will threaten the indigenous communities in Assam,” nath said.
He also said that while the Congress government sympathized with the religious minority people for the sake of vote bank politics, the BJP government is also sympathizing with the linguistic minorities (Hindu Bengalis) for the sake of vote bank of politics,” he said adding that the organizations will take massive agitation measures if the Bill is not scraped.
“The Centre is out to insult the Assam Accord by amending the Citizenship Act. We’re not going to let that happen. We’ll continue our protest till the Centre cancels the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. This government in Assam bfore coming to power spoke of jaati, maati and bheti, but it has pushed the State towards crisis by trying to execute the Bill. In this hour of crisis, we appeal to all linguistic and ethnic groups of the State to oppose the Bill unitedly,” Nath appealed.
The organizations today made it clear that the democratic movement crusade against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016; the Foreigners (Amendment) Order, 2015; the Passport (Entry into India) Amendment Rules, 2015 and the proposed long-term visas to people from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan would continue until they are cancelled.