Assam Opposition MLA Akhil Gogoi has appealed for a united fight against the implementation of the “unconstitutional CAA” in Assam, hours after Union home minister Amit Shah said at an event in Delhi that the contentious citizenship law would be implemented before the Lok Sabha polls.
He made the appeal in a 2.20-minute video posted on X on Saturday evening.
"I strongly urge all the regional organisations, left organisations, political parties of Assam to unitedly oppose the implementation of the undemocratic, unconstitutional CAA in Assam which is firmly derogatory for the regional interest of Assam. Come let us be united for Assam," the MLA said in a post attached to the video.
Gogoi is the president of the regional Raijor Dal and won the 2021 Assembly elections from jail. He had been arraigned in two cases under the UAPA. One case was linked to the violent protest in Chabua against the CAA in Assam. He was acquitted in both the cases in June 2021.
On Saturday, Shah had said: “The CAA is an Act of the country, it will definitely be notified. It will be notified before the (Lok Sabha) polls. The CAA will be implemented before the polls. There should be no confusion.”
He added that the CAA couldn't snatch away the citizenship of anybody because there was no such provision in the central law.
The contentious CAA fast-tracks Indian citizenship for persecuted non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India without papers before December 31, 2014.
There were widespread protests in Assam against the CAA when it was passed by Parliament in 2019 as a large majority opposed it because they claimed it was a threat to Assam’s culture, identity and language by opening the floodgates for influx from Bangladesh.
Those opposed to the CAA in the Northeast, including Assam, are against bestowing citizenship based on religion, irrespective of whether one is a Hindu or a Muslim or from any other religion unlike elsewhere where the focus was mainly on the exclusion of Muslims. Illegal immigration from Bangladesh remains a sensitive issue in Assam.
AGP president
AGP president Atul Bora and working president Keshab Mahanta were on Sunday elected for the third consecutive term. They were first elected in 2014. Both of them are ministers in the BJP-led state government.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in his congratulatory message said he was “confident that under the new leadership team of the AGP, a valued partner of the National Democratic Alliance, the party will continue to play a key role in realising Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji’s vision of a Viksit Assam”.
