Stir against Citizenship Bill rocks Assam areas

Guwahati: Protests over the Citizenship Bill erupted at various places in Assam on Saturday, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government was working to ensure the proposed legislation gets Parliament nod.

Even as agitators bur-nt effigies of the PM in Lower Assam and Dibrugarh, and CM Sarbananda Sonowal called for calm while assuring the people that he would protect the interests of the state, security agencies expressed fear of the law and order problem escalating in Assam.

Frontline students organisations and civil society groups, including pro-talk faction of Ulfa, have already called for an Assam bandh on January 8 and are threatening to launch massive protests across the state.

Though the 11-hour bandh called by All Assam Students Union (AASU), along with 30 indigenous organisations, coincides with calls for bandh by Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha and All Assam Koch Rajbanshi Students Union in protest against the non-fulfilment of their long pending demand of granting schedule tribe status, security forces are keeping a close watch on these developments.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant nationality to people belonging to minority communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians — in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of their residence in India.

Several indigenous organisations in the state have been opposing the Bill as they believe it would harm their cultural identity.

The PM, after flagging off the BJP’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in the Northeast, said Friday that the Bill was “not for the benefit of anyone but a penance against the injustice and many wrongs done in the past”.

Around 70 organisations, led by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), took out protest rallies in the state capital on Saturday morning.

Security agencies have warned the Centre that enforcing the Citizenship Bill may strengthen the sense of alienation amongst the indigenous people of the state. Reiterating that it would be highly challenging to implement the proposed Citizenship Bill as there is no record available about the entry of illegal immigrants to the state, security sources said that the Bill may strengthen the separatist movement in the state and revive old wounds.  

AASU, which on Saturday convened the meeting of 30 indigenous organisations to formulate strategy to oppose the Bill, said that Prime Minister has betrayed the Assamese and for this the BJP will have to face consequences.

AASU adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharjya said, “Now it has been proven that the Prime Minister, the Central government and the BJP are protectors of Bangladeshis. The Prime Minister’s statement on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, has also proved that they are anti-indigenous people. Under no circumstances are we going to accept the Citizenship Bill that seeks to defy the Assam Accord. We opposed the Bill, we’re opposing it now and will continue to oppose it.”

“Our stand is crystal clear — Hindus and Muslims who had entered Assam from Bangladesh before 1971 will stay in the state. Those who entered Assam after 1971, irrespective of their faiths, will have to go. We can’t allow Assam to be a garbage bin for Bangladeshis. The indigenous people of Tripura are second-class citizens in the state. We’re not ready to live the life of second-class citizens in Assam,” he added.

The ambitious Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, is expected to face a tough time ahead with MPs of at least four parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and the CPI(M) submitting dissent notes to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the controversial Bill.

Even NDA ally the Janata Dal (United) has decided to oppose the Bill.

JD(U) secretary-general K.C. Tyagi on Saturday condemned the JPC’s decision to go ahead with the submission of the proposed Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 to Parliament on January 7.

Mr Tyagi said, “This would lead to a demographic change in the entire region. The Bill will destroy the ethnicity of Assam and Northeast. The northeastern states are not dustbin for illegal immigrants. Despite BJP being our ally, we strongly oppose the Bill.”