Guwahati: In what has triggered angry reaction from northeastern states, President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) would give justice to persecuted minorities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan through Indian citizenship. His remarks came close on the heels of ongoing agitation in Assam and other northeastern states against the bill.
While addressing the joint session of both the Houses, the President said, “The Citizenship Amendment Bill will help in the securing of Indian citizenship by those victims who were persecuted and were compelled to seek refuge in India. These people cannot be blamed since they were victims of circumstances.”
The North East Students Organization (NESO) advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya called upon all the opposition political parties to oppose the bill in the parliamentary.
Informing that the student body has been contacting leaders of various political parties seeking their support to block the bill in the Rajya Sabha, he said, “We are requesting the political parties to block the bill by voting against the bill in the Raja Sabha.”
It is significant that AASU has also sought the support of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in its fight against the Citizenship Bill. The AASU has reached out to the TMC leadership in a bid to corner the BJP in Assam.
The AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya told reporters, "We recently met Derek O'Brien and Sougata Roy and requested the TMC leadership to support our cause. We explained to them that we are not against Bengalis and that nobody should live in fear. There is propaganda outside Assam that we are against Bengalis. We are only against illegal Bangladeshis and we believe that Assam cannot be a dumping ground for illegal Bangladeshis. So we want to assure the Bengali speaking community in India and particularly in West Bengal that we are only against Bangladeshis."
Mr Bhattacharya said that the AASU was ready to hold talks with TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.
Meanwhile, BJP's district president in Upper Assam's Tinsukia district, Lakheswar Moran, was thrashed on Wednesday by some protesters.
The incident took place when the BJP leader arrived to attend a meeting organised by the Lok Jagran Manch, an RSS affiliate. The group has been involved in organising a series of public programmes in Upper Assam to 'dispel myth' about the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
In a related development 76 of the 855 families of those killed in the Assam agitation on Wednesday returned the honours they had received from the Sarbananda Sonowal government in 2016. The remaining families are likely to follow suit in phases.
The state government had awarded a citation and Rs 5 lakh to each family to recognise the sacrifices of agitators killed during the anti-foreigners’ movement during 1979-85. Sadou Asom Swahid Pariyal Samannayrakhi Parishad, the coordination committee of the families, had recently taken the decision to return the citations by January 31.
