File Photo of an anti-CAA protest in Guwahati
Credit: PTI photo
Guwahati: The fresh agitation against the Centre's move to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) began in Assam on Thursday, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day-long visit to the state.
Members of All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and 30 other organisations began the agitation with a motorcycle rally across Assam with slogans against the CAA.
"We have not accepted the CAA and will never accept it," chief advisor of the AASU, Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharyya told reporters. The students' organisations have announced a series of agitations in order to protest the Centre's move to implement the CAA.
Assam had roared in anger in December 2019 when the CAA was passed in the Parliament. The agitation turned volatile and at least five anti-CAA protesters died in police firing. The violent protest later spread to the rest of the country.
Many in Assam are opposed to the CAA saying the same would reduce the indigenous people into a minority by offering citizenship to a large number of Hindu Bengalis from neighbouring Bangladesh. The CAA seeks to offer citizenship to "persecuted" non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The AASU and other organisations have demanded that Assam should be exempted from the CAA as the Centre had signed the Assam Accord in 1985 after the six-year-long anti-foreigner movement. The accord decided to detect and deport the post-1971 migrants, irrespective of religion.
Reacting to the plan of agitation again by several organisations, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said they should move the Supreme Court, instead of resorting to agitation. Several petitions against the CAA are pending in the Supreme Court.
PM Visit:
Meanwhile, security across Assam has been beefed up in order to prevent violent protests during PM Modi's visit on Friday and Saturday. Modi will visit Kaziranga National Park, unveil a statue of Lachit Borphukan, the celebrated General of the Ahom Dynasty and will also address a rally in Jorhat in eastern Assam, the stronghold of Assamese regionalism.