Guwahati: Members of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) — an influential farmer’s body of Assam — and several other ‘brotherhood’ organisations carried out a massive protest rally in Guwahati on Friday against the government’s decision to move ahead with the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2019.
A large number of protestors belonging to various civil bodies of the state, including Nari Mukti Sangram Samiti, Tea Workers Sangram Samiti and Satra Mukti Sangram Samiti, among others, demonstrated holding placards and raising slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre and the state.
Pressing on their demands to scrap CAB, which is a threat to indigeneity, culture, integrity and language of the Assamese society along with the entire Northeastern region, the protestors carried out a mass protest rally starting from Guwahati Club to Assam governor Jagdish Mukhi’s residence at Raj Bhavan under a demonstration programme called ‘Raj Bhavan Chalo’.
Speaking with EastMojo, KMSS advisor Akhil Gogoi said that people of Assam will never accept the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 as it is totally against the Indian Constitution and is cardinally based on religion.
Gogoi added that the BJP along with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is trying to destroy Assam and Northeast India by implementing this draconian bill as it is strange to know that no other country of the globe till date has enacted a citizenship bill to provide citizenship to foreigners.
While pointing out the government’s decision of removing four Northeastern states — Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal — from the jurisdiction of CAB, Gogoi said that the Union government through this move is trying to dump the entire 1.90 crore foreign population in Assam and Tripura.
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“If CAB 2019 is passed and gets enacted, it will be a threat to Assamese identity and culture, Assamese people will lose their political rights, indigenous people will lose their job opportunities, our trade and commerce will be couped up by foreigners,” Gogoi said.
Meanwhile, speaking on the government’s decision to conduct NRC exercise across the country including Assam again, Gogoi informed that the new dates proposed by the Union government to identify illegal foreigners are against the guidelines of Assam Accord, 1985.
“Assam especially has a foreigner’s act, so the NRC exercise with the new proposed date for foreigners identification to be held across the country cannot be accurate to Assam,” Gogoi added.
The BJP-led NDA government has decided to make a fresh placement of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, among others, in Parliament during its Winter Session that is on till December 13 this year.
