Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday demanded that the state government dissuade 26 Bengali organisations from holding a meeting here in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.
The Citizen Right Protection Forum, Assam, a joint platform of the 26 organisations, is organising the meeting at the Veterinary College playground in Khanapara here on November 17 to mobilise public opinion on granting citizenship to Hindu Bengalis living in Assam.
Organisations such as the Oikya Sena Asom, Ahom Jatiya Ganamanch, along with Ulfa leaders, have opposed the meeting, fearing that it will divide society on linguistic lines.
The Assamese-dominated Brahmaputra Valley has been opposing the bill while it is welcomed in Bengali-dominated Barak Valley.
The Oikya Sena Asom on Monday warned that it would try to foil the meeting. The bill aims to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014. Assam has accepted March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of foreigners through the Assam Accord.
“The meeting will create conflict. The state government should persuade the organisers not to hold the meeting. I believe the organisations will accept the government’s advice or persuasion,” Gogoi told reporters here.
“Without the government’s blessings they cannot organise the meeting,” he said.
In May, the pro-talks group of Ulfa had planned to organise a meeting in Cachar district in Barak Valley as a protest against the bill, but the district administration did not give permission for the meeting.
“The government should not allow the 26 organisations to hold the meeting at Khanapara. We fear that it will create law and order problems,” Ulfa leader Anup Chetia said.