The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Monday launched a statewide demonstration against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
The students’ union resumed its protest, like the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), as there are apprehensions that the Centre may push a fresh version of the bill during the winter session of Parliament, scheduled to start on November 18.
The bill seeks grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to escape religious persecution.
The union’s protesters took out rallies in Nagaon, Baksa, Nalbari, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Hailakandi districts.
Organisations like the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) also supported the students’ union at several places on Monday.
The protesters said the bill violates the spirit of the Assam Accord of 1985, which said anyone who entered Assam after March 24, 1971, will be treated as a foreigner.
Staging a sit-in on the banks of Dighalipukhuri here, AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath said, “The Assam Accord can end illegal influx in the state. The Centre must implement it in its true sense rather than creating confusion among the people by trying to impose the bill.”
AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharjya said on Monday, “We are not going to accept it at any cost. AASU warns the Centre not to impose this controversial law or to face the consequences.”
He added that AASU and the North East Students’ Organisation (Neso), a conglomeration of different student organisations of the region, would continue to protest against the bill.
Neso had announced last week that it would resort to an agitation to prevent the passage of the bill. On Monday, it announced protests in all the capitals of the Northeast on November 18.
The bill was passed by the previous Lok Sabha in January but not introduced in the Rajya Sabha following protests in the Northeast. The bill lapsed with the end of the term of the 16th Lok Sabha in May.
In January, the AGP, an ally of the ruling party of BJP, had walked out of the coalition government in Assam in protest against the bill.
However, it later set aside its differences and restored the alliance on a seat-sharing condition during the Lok Sabha polls.