The Tangla chapter of All Assam Students’ Union and 29 other ally ethnic organizations along with thousands of students, citizens hit the streets on Thursday in Assam’s Udalguri against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB).
They took out a massive mass protest rally throughout Tangla town against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which seeks to grant citizenship to persecuted religious minorities of the neighboring nations.
The protest programme was voluntarily participated by people from all walks of life, young and old alike.
Protestors walked in a peaceful procession, raising slogans against the Bill and the government, for more than seven kilometeres which started and culminated at Tangla High Secondary playground.
Addressing the gathering, assistant general secretary, AASU, Jayanta Kumar Bhattacharjya said, “Assam is not the dumping ground of illegal immigrants. The bill violates the spirit of the historic Assam Accord of 1985, which clearly laid down that anyone who entered Assam after March 24, 1971 will be treated as foreigner.”
Bhattacharjya further questioning the government said, “Will the supreme sacrifice of the 855 martyrs of Assam Movement go in vain and said ‘we will never accept the bill which is violation of the clauses of the Assam Accord and it is the heart and soul of the Assamese.”
He further said “We will never take the burden of illegal Bangladeshi Hindus, we warn the Centre not to impose this fundamentally unconstitutional bill or else be ready to face the music.”
He further said, “We dare the Asom Gana Parishad and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), the allies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam to come out in solidarity with the people of the State in this hour of crisis and save the Assamese language, culture and community.”
“Assam is a land of Sankar-Azan where there is a synthetic relationship between where the Hindus and Muslims, if communal forces tries to create tension it will face the wrath of the people,”he said.
“The Assamese are easy going, meek, generous, but that must not be taken for granted, as we have a rich legacy of Ahoms who repelled the mighty Mughals from Assam, and if the situation demands we are ready to lay down our lives for the sake of our motherland,” he further asserted.
President of Udalguri chapter, Assam Tea Tribes Student’s
Association (ATTSA), Deep Tanti said, “We vehemently oppose the bill which is detrimental to the cause of the Assamese society and the bill seeks to create division in lines of religion which is never acceptable.”
Vice president, Udalguri chapter, Asom Jatiyabadi Yuba ChatraParishad (AJYCP), Niloy Chaliya said, “The bill undermines the fundamental tenets of the Constitution and is violation of the historic Assam Accord, it is a sheer conspiracy by the communal forces to create division and unrest among the people.”
A senior citizen, Binoy Kumar Medhi participating in the protest said, “We never want a bill which will diminish the native Assamese into a second class citizen.”
He further said, “The government should have respected the sentiments of the people and how can there be a bill which is detrimental to secularism, one of the core principles of the Constitution.”
He also lamented that the regionalism have been swayed in Assam and the AGP which should have been front-runner in the protest against the bill is now acting at the instance of the BJP for the sake of remaining in power.”