Sixty organisations, which have launched a joint movement to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, have decided to intensify and continue their agitation till the Centre scraps the proposed legislation.
The bill that seeks 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, is likely to be presented in the winter session of Parliament.
Following a meeting on Saturday on the outskirts of the city, the organisations on Sunday held a public meeting at Cotton College to take suggestions of people from different sections of society on how to carry forward the movement.
“We believe by now people and organisations opposing the bill have a fair idea about the consequences of the bill in Assam. Now we need a strategy on how to stop the Centre from passing the bill in Parliament,” said Akhil Gogoi, adviser to the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, one of the organisations leading the movement.
Akhil said the bill is the second issue after the Ram temple in Ayodhya by the BJP to “strengthen its Hindutva agenda” in the country. “The BJP now does not have any development agenda. It is trying to remain in power by harping on its Hindutva agenda,” he said.
Participants in the Sunday meeting advised the organisations to create awareness against the bill across the country, meet members of Parliament from across the country to convince them to oppose the bill and include other youth and student organisations and literary bodies in their movement. They criticised the role of the AGP on the issue.
Inaugurating the meeting, intellectual Hiren Gohain said the people of Assam are heading towards a critical situation created by the Centre. “The bill will be the final nail in the coffin of Assamese people,” he said.
“There has been an effort to create conflict between Assamese and Bengalis in the name of the bill. This should be stopped. Using the bill, the BJP is trying to destroy the age-old social harmony existing in the Northeast,” said Dinesh Baishya, an academician.
Ten more organisations have joined the movement.
The Sunday public meeting approved the protest programmes planned by the 60 organisations on Saturday, including organising a rally at Dispur on November 16 and holding agitation programmes in all district headquarters from November 17 to 27 and a mass hunger strike in Guwahati in December.
The meeting called for participation of students in the movement against the bill.