Thousands of senior citizens congregated in front of the Jorhat deputy commissioner’s office on Monday and protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.
The sit-in protest by the senior citizens, representing various organizations and pensioners’ bodies, lasted for three hours.
The demonstration by the elders, which began at 11 am, was organised under the aegis of the Jorhat unit of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), backed by 30 other ethnic organisations.
Also read: Assam: Anti-CAA protests rock Jorhat
Meanwhile, members of the Ujoni Asom Pratibandhi Suraksha Parishad took out a procession through the main roads of Jorhat town.
During the rally, the protestors, holding posters and placards, shouted slogans against the CAA.
The senior citizens shouted slogans against Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They shouted slogans like “BJP Murdabad”, “We will not accept CAA”, “We will not tolerate RSS politics”, “Scrap the black law” and so on
The senior citizens including Bhabba Chetia, Dr Golap Deka , Bolin Hazarika, Binit Bora, Pradip Sarkar, Babbulal Gaggar, Swadesh De, Bhabba Goswami, Mahim Chandra Neog and several others addressed the gathering and called for a continued protest against the CAA.
AASU leader Bijoy Shankar Bordoloi and Jorhat AASU unit’s president Arjunmoni Bhuyan also addressed the gathering.
Bordoloi said it was condemnable that the government had adopted a policy of domination, division and sops to the artistes to break up the protest.
AASU Central Committee member Jul Khound also said it was a matter of shame that the aged and infirm had to take to the streets in this extreme cold to protest against the government’s policy.