The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and 28 other organisations on Wednesday demanded that Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal clear his stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, and announced a series of agitations opposing the proposed legislation.
The organisations, in a daylong meeting here, discussed the BJP national and state executives’ support for the bill despite growing opposition in Brahmaputra Valley.
They expressed concern over Sonowal’s silence and asked if there was any difference between the stand of the BJP and the government.
The organisations said they were worried as the winter session of Parliament was approaching where the BJP-led central government is planning to present the bill. “We want to know whether chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal is for or against the bill,” AASU adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharjya said.
The organisations alleged that the bill was a ploy of the Centre to derail the National Register of Citizens (NRC) update, which is seen as a solution to the age-old foreigners’ problem. “We warn the Centre again not to impose the bill on Assam,” AASU president Dipanka Nath said.
AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said the people of Assam would not accept the bill under any circumstance. “The government is silent on the bill even after publication of the draft NRC. It should clarify whether it supports the bill or opposes it.”
The organisations will hold a xokiyoni bikhobh, a protest to warn the government, here on November 8 and in all the district headquarters on November 10. They will organise a torchlit procession across the state on November 16 and a public meeting in Guwahati whose date has not been fixed yet. From November 9, their representatives will meet legislators and ministers at their homes, requesting them to oppose the bill.
Nath said two more organisations, Barman Kachari Students’ Union and Nath Yogi Students’ Union, will join the protests.
The bill that seeks to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014, is being reviewed by a joint parliamentary committee.
