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Guwahati, Feb. 16 (IANS): Ahead of the Assembly elections in Assam, taking a tough stance on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the Congress on Tuesday announced that the party if elected would build a memorial to commemorate the martyrdom of anti-CAA protestors, who sacrificed their lives to save 'Assamese pride'.
Assam Congress leaders were present during the party's election campaign in the state on Sunday where former Party President and Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi announced that the controversial CAA would not be implemented in Assam or any part of the country at any cost.
Congress Campaign Committee Chairman, Pradyut Bordoloi, on Tuesday said that after winning the state Assembly elections, the party would build a memorial to the anti-CAA people's movement that has been going on in Assam.
"The memorial shall remember the people's struggle and sacrifices, protest songs and paintings," he added.
Assam Pradesh Congress Committee President, Ripun Bora, reiterated that a grand memorial would be constructed in Guwahati if the party comes back to power.
"Guwahati would see a new landmark, a grand memorial in the memory of the anti-CAA movement to be built by the incoming Congress government. This would be the state's message to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). No CAA in Assam," Bora told the media.
Congress Legislature Party leader, Debabrata Saikia, said the dark days of BJP's oppression of Assamese people are about to get over.
"Congress is winning Assam and would make a memorial of the historic people's struggle against CAA," he added.
Echoing similar sentiments, Congress Manifesto Committee Chairman Gaurav Gogoi also asserted that the party would build a memorial to salute the supreme sacrifice of the anti-CAA protestors.
Congress leader Abdul Khaleque said the reason why the Congress has announced that it would make a memorial for the anti-CAA struggle is to make sure that future generations remember how the people stood up to the autocratic rule of the BJP and its imposition of an anti-Assamese law.
Assam Congress Spokesperson, Bobbeeta Sharma, said the party leaders are campaigning against the "draconian CAA" while they are touring the state through "Axom Basaon Ahok" Yatra.
"The Congress leadership is interacting and taking feedback from all sections of society on CAA, unemployment and other pertinent issues plaguing the state," she added.
All eight north-eastern states and neighbouring West Bengal witnessed violent protests for many weeks in 2019 end and in early 2020 against the CAA.
Five people had died in police firing and more than 200 were arrested in Assam, following the violent protests that damaged a huge number of government and non-government assets, including railway properties in West Bengal and the north-eastern states.
Notified on January 10, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who have migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014, after facing religion-based persecution.