The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Wednesday criticised Union home minister Amit Shah for asserting that the Centre would bring the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the winter session of Parliament.
Criticising Shah and the ruling BJP, KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi said: “Shah has announced that Hindu foreigners will be granted citizenship once the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill becomes a law…. This time, opposing the bill will not only be difficult but near impossible.”
Saying that 20 lakh Bangladeshi Hindus in Assam would get citizenship once the bill is enacted, Akhil called upon the people, civil society bodies and student organisations of Assam as well as national organisations to come together to oppose the bill.
Invoking Mahatma Gandhi on Gandhi Jayanti, Akhil said he never discriminated on the basis of religion. “Gandhi believed in secularism, inclusiveness and non-violence. But the BJP is creating a division in the name of religion. The country is now being run by Gandhi killers, the followers of Nathuram Godse whose ideology has now become the dominant political ideology in the nation,” he alleged.
Akhil accused the BJP of promoting the ideology of communalism, Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra.
AASU general secretary Lurin Jyoti Gogoi said the Centre should not play with the sentiments of the people of Assam and other states of the Northeast.
“The bill will not be accepted. AASU will be forced to launch a democratic movement if the Centre tries to impose the bill against the wishes of the people. We will not accept violation of the Assam Accord,” he told The Telegraph.
“The Assam Accord says all foreigners who came to Assam after March 24, 1971, should be detected and deported irrespective of their religion and AASU will not accept violation of the accord. The Centre’s move to give citizenship to foreigners on the basis of religion is unconstitutional as India is a secular country,” he added.
He said: “The bill will destroy the political rights, language and culture of the indigenous people of Assam and other states of the Northeast.”
