The last day of 2019 saw Assam government employees wearing black badges to work, the All Assam Students’ Union “roaring” at a massive rally that the Assamese will never be defeated and several organisations declaring a series of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the New Year.
The move of Sadou Asom Karmachari Parishad (SAKP), in response to whose call government employees wore black badges on Tuesday, assumes significance because Dispur had asked government employees not to participate in the protests as it might hamper functioning of the administration. On December 18, state government employees had for the first time in the past 15 years abstained from duty. The government said it would neither resort to pay-cut nor restrict employees from participating in “cease work” but would adjust it with their casual leave quota.
SAKP president Basab Kalita said, “All the state government employees wore black badges to protest against CAA while discharging their official duty. We want to ensure that no government office work gets hampered due to protests but, at the same time, we want to clarify that we are against CAA.”
Employees of the Assam secretariat also registered their protest during the day. The AASU extended support to the SAKP protest.
AASU activists also waved black flags at the BJP’s Gauhati MP Queen Oja at Azara, 22km from here, where she had gone to inaugurate a road.
In response to AASU’s call, thousands of people converged at Koliapani public field at Naharkatia in Dibrugarh district to participate in the student union’s protest programme, Janatar Ninad (citizens’ roar).
Addressing the mammoth rally, AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said the people of Assam will not bow down before the government and the anti-CAA agitation would continue. He termed the BJP’s peace rallies a political gimmick with no takers.
“The CAA is against the spirit of the 1985 Assam Accord. It is against the self-respect of the Assamese people. We can’t accept it. We will fight till our last breath to defeat CAA. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah should understand that the self-respect of the Assamese people can never be defeated,” he said.
He reiterated that the state cannot shoulder the burden of a single Bangladeshi, Hindu or Muslim, entering the state after 1971. The Assam Accord fixes March 25, 1971 as the cut-off date for deportation of illegal immigrants irrespective of their religious affiliation. The CAA allows citizenship to immigrants of six non-Muslims communities from three neighbouring countries if they entered the country till December 31, 2014.
The protests will continue in the New Year.
On Wednesday, the first day of the New Year, the All Assam Law Students’ Union, in association with students from Cotton University, B. Barooah College and Dispur Law College, will stage a protest at Guwahati Club area. Intellectuals and academicians have been invited to the programme. The AASU will stage a sit-in for five hours from 11am at Gandhi Chowk in Doomdooma.
The AASU has also appealed to the people of Assam to light a diya (lamp) in front of their house on Wednesday evening to pay tribute to the martyrs of the anti-CAA movement.
On Thursday, Jatiya Mahila Parishad, the women’s wing of the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), will hold Mahilar Garjan (women’s roar) against CAA across the state. At Doomdooma town in Tinsukia district of Upper Assam, it will stage the protest at Gandhi Chowk from 10.30am.
AJYCP’s Tinsukia unit president Surojit Moran told The Telegraph that the UN also finds CAA “fundamentally discriminatory”. “Then why are the governments here not understanding the problems with CAA? The protests will continue in the New Year,” he added.
On January 4, a massive protest rally, Vishal Pratibadi Samavesh, has been jointly called by the All Moran Students’ Union (Amsu), Moran Jatiya Karmachari Shaikshik Vikash Mancha, Moran Jatiya Mahila Parishad, Assam Moran Sabha Sodou, Moran Kala Sanskriti Vikash Kendra and the Moran Sahitya Sabha at ITI playground in Tinsukia town from 11am.
Amsu president Arun Jyoti Moran said, “I appeal to people across religion and community to take part in the CAA protest rally.”
Additional reporting by Avik Chakraborty in Dibrugarh and Manoj Kumar Ojha in Doomdooma
