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Activists of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti raise slogans during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (2016) in Guwahati on Friday.[/caption]
Guwahati, Nov. 22 (IANS): Thousands of protesters on Friday took part in a massive rally against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Assam capital Guwahati marching to the Raj Bhavan, and handed over a memorandum to the Central government opposing the contentious Bill.
While the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) organized the rally, different organizations like All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu), Indigenous Forum of Assam, among many others also took part in the rally that marched from the Guwahati Club area to Raj Bhavan.
“The BJP led NDA government at the Centre has showed its true colours. The BJP government is trying to bring back the CAB once again, which will impact negatively on the indigenous people of the state. We are not going to accept this at any cost,” said RTI activist and KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi while addressing the rally.
He said that the BJP’s sole intention is to grant citizenship to the Hindu Bengalis who have settled in different parts of Assam even after 1971. He said that local people and youth will suffer in terms of jobs and opportunities once the CAB is implemented.
“Assam had already taken lots of burden of illegal foreigners since Independence. We are not going to tolerate any more such burden by implementing the CAB. The people of Assam had given a clear signal to the Central and state government when they tried to implement the CAB last time. We are not accepting the CAB at any cost,” said Aasu chief Adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya.
Anti-CAB protests have continued to erupt in streets of Assam over the CAB in the past few days as the BJP-led government at the Centre is planning to table in the contentious Bill in the parliament during the ongoing session.
The All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu), other students’ bodies and at least 30 other civil society organizations took out candlelight processions against the CAB in different parts of the state on Thursday evening. They shouted slogans against the BJP-led government at the Centre and in the state, as well as against the CAB.
The people in Assam have been opposing the CAB, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8 but could not be introduced in the Rajya Sabha.
