It is holiday season, but students of schools and colleges are spending time at anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protest venues instead of visiting their cousins and uncles. The overall tension and traffic disruptions due to the protests are two reasons that stop most of them from being out station.

“We planned to visit our maternal uncle’s house after examinations, but Papa suggested that it is not the right time to go there because of the CAA which was being imposed on people,” said Surya Chetry, a Class V student, who came with his parents to Margherita in Tinsukia district of Upper Assam. “The shops open for a very short time. In Guwahati, it is difficult for my father to get a bus to go to office,” Madalasa, Surya’s younger sister, a Class III student, said.

There are many students like Surya and Madalasa who are now free after exams. The winter vacations are on and many students are back from hostels. But they cannot go out. The law-and-order situation of the state has improved now, but the people feel a kind of instability and uncertainty. There is a palpable tension.

“I wanted to call my daughter and son. My son studies at Kota in Rajasthan and my daughter is pursuing studies in Delhi, but I advised them to not to come this year as the political atmosphere is still not normal. We had planned to go to meet them, but train and flight services were cancelled because of the anti-CAA protests,” an assistant manager of a tea estate here said.

Nima Kalita, who was along with his son at a protest rally in Makum, on Sunday said: “Children’s examinations are over now, but can we go for a picnic to Itanagar as we do every year? No. When everyone is with mother Assam this time, who will think of going for a picnic or spending holidays? We are out every day to take part in protests with children and the elderly people of the family. The families, villages, towns and, actually speaking, the entire state is protesting against the CAA until it is withdrawn. We have forgotten everything. There is only one-point agenda and that is to protest to protect our land and people.”

Abhishek K. John, a college student, said: “The times are disturbing. I can see that my future is uncertain because of the CAA. Can the state tolerate the burden of lakhs of illegal Bangladeshis here? There is time even now. The government should withdraw the CAA and deport the illegal immigrants not only from Assam but from the entire country. The entire state is in the mode of peaceful protest to scrap the CAA and this time even at the cost of holidays.”