GUWAHATI: Opposition parties in Assam staged a protest against the anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s is on a visit to the state.
The protest sit-in by the 16-member United Opposition Forum, Assam (UOFA) was held near Kaziranga, where Modi was scheduled to spend the night after reaching the state on Friday. Modi is on a two-day visit to Assam
UOFA spokesperson Akhil Gogoi said that the CAA is a threat to the identity of the Assamese people, and they will continue protesting it.
State Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah, participating in the protest, said, “The government cannot stifle our voices.” Another senior Congress leader, Debabrata Saikia, also maintained that the protests against the CAA will continue. “The government can use all tactics and power to suppress us. But the people are firm in their opposition to the CAA and we will continue with our protests,” he added.
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier said that CAA rules would be notified and implemented before the Lok Sabha polls. Under the CAA, religion is a basis for granting citizenship. The law specifically fast-tracks asylum claims of non-Muslim irregular immigrants including Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis from the neighboring Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
The UOFA had said that a state-wide strike will be called the very next day the contentious act comes into force, followed by siege of the the secretariat. It had also submitted a memorandum to the Indian President Droupadi Murmu, saying they would undertake a democratic mass movement across the state if the CAA is not repealed.
Earlier, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and other regional organisations kick-started their protest programme against the implementation of the CAA with bike rallies across the state. Speaking on the occasion, AASU president Utpal Sarma said that on March 10 (Sunday), leaders of AASU and another 30 regional organisations would hold a 12-hour hunger strike in all district headquarters.
He said, “The BJP government is saying that they will frame rules… Every time Lok Sabha elections approach, they suddenly remember CAA… For the people of Assam and Northeast, it is a question of identity and existence…”
Assam had seen agitations against the CAA when it was still a Bill under consideration of the previous Modi government. When protests against it flared across India in December 2019, heated agitation in Assam left at least five people dead.
