Several artistes of Assam hit the streets on Tuesday pledging that they would not “take” part in government programmes till the “contentious and divisive” Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was scrapped.

Artistes along with hundreds of protesters organised a massive rally against the bill from Chandmari to AASU headquarters in the city where they exhorted all to oppose the bill.

The protesters opposed the bill through songs and slogans.

Assamese actors Barsha Rani Bishaya and Utpal Das, singers Manas Robin and Dikshu Sarma and many others delivered speeches against the bill.

They chanted slogans like “Withdraw CAB”, “We will not bear the burden of foreigners”, “Stop politics over religion”, “Assam rejects CAB” among others. Dikhsu Sarma said: “If this bill is passed, the Assamese people will become a minority within the state itself, and we cannot accept this bill at any cost.”

Utpal Das, a noted actor from the state, said the artistes were vehemently opposed to the bill. “The protests will continue until the bill is scrapped,” he said.

The artistes exhorted people to boycott government programmes, including the summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe that is scheduled to be held on Sunday.

Barsha said: “Before an artiste, I am an Assamese and I will continue to oppose the bill. The people who are protesting are not fools. We cannot allow anybody to destroy our community, culture and tradition. I ask the government to consider the appeal of people. People of the state brought them (BJP) to power. If the bill is passed, the indigenous people of the state will become minorities. The bill is a threat to our language and culture. We cannot forget the martyrs who died during the Assamese Language Movement.”

Singer and music composer Joi Barua urged the government to understand the sentiment of the people and hoped for peace and progress for Assam.

Barua wrote in Facebook “#CAB If CAB is an exercise in humanity, the rest of India needs to share the burden of the immigrants as well. Assam has done its bit — taking it all from 1971 till now. The idea of dumping displaced people in mostly one state is absurd. We are bursting at the seams with our own sets of problems. To the people from other places who have been lecturing us about CAB please do open your lands & your houses like we have been asked to. Be human. And Assam needs to do its own introspection now. Like we are agitating now, with the same fervour we need to understand how & why things went wrong. Have we been complacent, lackadaisical? How did we allow things to get this far? Time for us to understand ourselves too.”

On Monday, actor Ravi Sarma resigned from the primary membership of the BJP. Singer Zubeen Garg and renowned actress Nishita Goswami also opposed the bill. Veteran filmmaker Jahnu Barua has decided not to participate in the Assam State Film Awards as a protest against the bill.