The North East Students’ Org anisation (NESO) observed a Black Day on Sunday against the “forceful imposition” of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the region by hoisting black flags and banners for the third straight year, asserting that the Northeast remained united against the law passed by Parliament in 2019.
Black flags and banners were hoisted in all the district headquarters of the Northeast by the eight constituent student organisations under NESO.
The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), a NESO constituent, besides hoisting black flags at Swahid Niwas here, also took out rallies in Dhemaji and Sivasagar with black flags to register their protest.
In Shillong, flags and banners were put up in front of government offices.
The contentious CAA fasttracks Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India without papers before December 31, 2014.
The Parliament passed the law on December 11, 2019, but the BJP-led central government has not yet framed the rules required for its implementation.
As many as 232 petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court from across the country against the law, of which 53 are from the Northeast — 50 from Assam and 3 from Tripura, the two states to be most affected by its implementation.
However, the opposition to the CAA in the Northeast is different from elsewhere in the country. It is not linked to religion but fuelled by the fear that the law will open the floodgates for illegal migrants, thereby threatening the identity, language and culture of the indigenous communities in the long run. Northeast organisations want the law repealed.
