They come from myriad backgrounds and faiths but at the protest venues in the city and several parts of the State, they all unite against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act as they believe it's an “assault” on Assamese culture and identity.
Forty-eight-year-old Guwahati resident Upendrajit Kalita says he felt a “sense of betrayal” the day Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, alleging that the legislation goes “against the Assam Accord” which was signed to protect the interest of the native Assamese people.
Kalita, who works in an advertisement agency, had participated in the historic six-year-long Assam Movement led by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) that had culminated in the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985.
The massive protests across the state against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), now an Act, are currently also led by the AASU, which has asserted that it will be unrelenting in its battle.
From Guwahati, the nerve-centre of the protests, to Jorhat, and from Dibrugarh to Sivasagar, protesters have virtually brought the state to a standstill, demanding that “the CAA must go”, otherwise the agitation will be stepped up.
“One of the clauses of the Accord mandated detection and deportation of all illegal migrants without discriminating on the basis of religion and the all-accepted cut-off year of 1971. Clause 6 of it was to give constitutional protection to original citizens of Assam,” Kalita said, and alleged the CAA “goes against all of that”.