The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will rock the first day of the budget session of the Assam Assembly on Monday.
As the state is simmering ever since the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8, the Opposition parties are sharpening their claws to go after the ruling BJP in the Assembly on the issue.
Leader of the Opposition and Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia said they will move a resolution in the House seeking scrapping of the bill, which is harmful to the interests of the people of the state.
“We will seek a detailed discussion on the negative impacts of the bill on the state,” Saikia said.
The AGP, which walked out of its alliance with the BJP after the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha, will also raise its voice against the bill in the Assembly. AGP president Atul Bora, who resigned as the agriculture minister after the party quit the BJP-led government, said they will sit on the Opposition benches and protest against the bill.
Similarly, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) leader Hafiz Bashir Ahmed Qasimi said they had been protesting against the bill outside the Assembly and would continue on the floor of the House too.
The budget session will begin with the customary address by governor Jagdish Mukhi, likely to be disrupted by the Opposition MLAs protesting against the bill.
There have been a series of protests in the state by various organisations like All Assam Students’ Union, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad and AGP against the bill — which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, after six years of residence in the country — saying it would threaten the existence of the indigenous people of Assam.
The KMSS and 69 organisations allied to it will protest against the bill outside the Assembly on Monday. A large number of security personnel have been deployed and prohibitory orders have been issued by the district administration to prevent any untoward incident during the protests.
Sources said security personnel manning the entrance points to the Assembly have been instructed not to allow visitors to carry any black clothing such as handkerchiefs and mufflers, on the Assembly premises in order to prevent black-flag protests.
The budget for 2019-20 will be presented on February 6 and the Assam Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2019, will be introduced in this session.