Protests erupted across Assam on Monday, with some agitators stripping in public, over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and tabling of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on it in Parliament.
The influential All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) launched a statewide protest against the bill by observing ‘Black Day’, with the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and 30 ethnic organisations joining the agitation.
Leaders of the Congress, the CPI and the pro-talk ULFA faction, besides journalists, teachers and civil society groups also hit the streets with black flags and placards, shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and burning their effigies.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014.