Guwahati, March 11
All Assam Students Union (AASU) has said that it will agitate against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules soon after these are notified by the Centre, said the Chief Adviser of the student body, Samujjal Bhattacharya.
He told IANS, “We have decided to burn the copies of CAA rules in each district headquarters of Assam once the central government’s notification is out in public domain. Assam will witness continuous non-violent agitations against CAA in the coming days.”
AASU and 30 other organisations have already held a 12-hour hunger strike against the CAA.
Bhattacharya said, “CAA is an injustice towards the people of Assam and Northeast and at least 53 petitions from Assam and Tripura have been submitted before the Supreme Court against it since December 2019.”
He also claimed that Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Manipur are exempt from the CAA. Additionally, the Act does not include the three Assam hill districts and the five districts covered by the sixth schedule of the Indian Constitution.
“Our primary question is how will CAA benefit Assam if it is detrimental to Mizoram or Arunachal Pradesh? How is it beneficial for Nagaon and Kamrup if it is wrong for Kokrajhar and Karbi Anglong in Assam? We are not to be viewed as dumping grounds”, Bhattacharya said.
He added, “The reason the northeast is unique from other regions of the country is that we have taken in the majority of illegal immigrants. In the 1980s, there was a movement in Assam and the government signed the Assam Accord. That is why we will continue to oppose the CAA until it is scrapped.”
Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated on Sunday that since the CAA has become law, there is no longer any reason to hold protests against it.
“They ought to have voiced their objections in 2019 before Parliament approved it. I respect their view, but I believe they ought to challenge laws like the Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act in the Supreme Court.” CM Sarma added
