Guwahati: The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and 30 indigenous organisations on Monday said it will burn copies of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) across the state.
It also announced of a series of protest programmes, while also taking forward its legal battle against the Act, AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharjya told PTI.
“We will continue with our non-violent, peaceful, democratic movement against the CAA. Alongside, we will also continue our legal fight,” he said.
Bhattacharjya asserted that the indigenous people of Assam and North East will never accept CAA.
“On Tuesday, copies of the CAA will be burnt by the North East Student Organisation (NESO) in all the state capitals of the region.
“AASU and 30 organisations will also take out torchlight processions in Assam, and launch a satyagraha from the next day,” he said.
Pointing out that the Sixth Scheduled areas and states with provisions for Inner Line Permit (ILP) in the North East have been exempted from CAA, Bhattacharjya said, “Our question is, something which is bad for some parts of NE, how can it be good for the other parts. In Assam too, in eight districts it will not be enforced.”
He also claimed that the CAA goes against the Assam Accord, which sets March 25, 1971, as the deadline for identification of illegal migrants in this north eastern state.
The AASU had been at the forefront in protesting against the CAA since the bill proposing the legislation was brought by the central government, and has already filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Act.
Meanwhile, students have started protesting against the CAA in different parts of the state, including in front of Cotton University in Guwahati.
With the CAA rules being issued, the Narendra Modi-led central government will start granting Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India till December 31, 2014. These include Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians.
The CAA was passed in December 2019 but had not come into effect as rules were not notified till now.
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