The All Assam Students’ Union today warned the Union government that the people of Assam and the Northeast would never let it forcefully impose the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), which is going to be a tool in the hands of the government to secure Bangladeshi vote bank.
Statewide protest activities were taken up in the form of rallies, sit-in demonstrations and sloganeering, where the student activists opposed the Centre’s plan to move the bill in the winter session of the Parliament.
The AASU along with the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), the umbrella body of prominent student organisations of the northeastern states, has also planned massive protest activities in the capitals of seven northeastern states on November 18.
In Guwahati, a sit-in protest demonstration was organised on the bank of Dighalipukhuri. AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya said the bill was a ploy of the Central government to take away the decision making capacity of the people of Assam and the Northeast.
“If the indigenous people of the region become minority due to this proposed legislation, they would have no say in the matters of land, resources and politics. We are not going to accept it at any cost,” he mentioned.
AASU leaders Dipanka Kumar Nath and Lurinjyoti Gogoi stressed the fact that the CAB was not just a violation of the historic Assam Accord, but was also against the spirit of the Indian Constitution.
“With the spontaneous support of the people of Assam and the Northeast, we will continue this movement in all parts of the region. As the move was opposed throughout the State today, the entire Northeast would stand in solidarity with the cause on November 18,” AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said.
The AASU activists throughout the State reiterated that Assam was not ready to take the burden of illegal migrants who have come to State after March, 1971.
