Protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 continue in the Jorhat district of Assam.
On Tuesday, the Jorhat district unit of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), supported by 30 other ethnic organizations, staged a protest against CAA in front of the Jorhat deputy commissioner’s office complex.
Jorhat district AASU assistant secretary Bijoy Shankar Bordoloi termed the Act as “unconstitutional, communal and against the 1985 Assam Accord”.
He said, “CAA is totally against the interests of the indigenous people of the Northeast.”
Bordoloi further said, “What is more scaring is that the government said there would be no need to produce proof of religious persecution while seeking citizenship under this Act.”
Accusing the BJP leadership of playing vote bank politics, Bordoloi said by doing so the government would grant citizenship to lakhs of Bangladeshis and settle them in Assam ensuring a permanent vote bank here to fulfil their dream of winning successive elections.
Bordoloi further said Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal in order to protect his own seat of power turned a “traitor” to his own people.
He added, “Those, who are hanging on to power by any means, are not bothered that the very identity of the people of Assam, their customs, culture, and language are under the threat of becoming extinct.”
The AASU leader also condemned the government’s policy of breaking up the agitation against CAA through a combination of intimidation, divisive tactics, and sops.
He added, “The people of Assam are not fools to fall for their machinations.”
Bordoloi said, “In Delhi, the chief minister during election campaign had said not to vote if no work was done but in Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma said we should vote for the BJP if we did not want to see Badruddin Ajmal as the next chief minister of Assam.”
Questioning how many times Himanta would try to win elections by scaring the people by the spectre of Ajmal, Bordoloi asked whether Sarma could show true courage to evict illegal migrants from the soul of Assam.
More than 20,000 people, who gathered for the protest, shouted slogans against Sonowal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union home minister Amit Shah, the BJP, the RSS, Jorhat Lok Sabha MP Topon Gogoi, Rajya Sabha MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, and Jorhat MLA Hitendra Nath Goswami.
The president of Jorhat regional AASU unit, Arjun Moni Bhuyan said all the organisations would continue to oppose CAA and that the protests would be conducted in a democratic manner till the government does not withdraw it.
Representatives of different organisations like Chutia Students’ Union, TMPK, AJYCP, media persons and others participated in the protest.