Protests against Citizenship Bill ahead of Amit Shah’s Assam visit

Protests against New Delhi’s bid to push the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 preceded the visit of Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah for the third conclave of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) here on Sunday.

NEDA is a BJP-led group of regional parties that have traditional had Congress as a political adversary in the Northeast.

Activists of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and other NGOs opposed to the citizenship bill lined up with black flags along the street near Guwahati’s Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International Airport and outside the NEDA conclave venue — Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra — before Mr. Shah arrived by a special flight around 10:30 am.

But police rounded up the protestors an hour before his arrival and arrested KMSS chief Akhil Gogoi and other leaders. “We will never allow BJP to pass this anti-Assam bill. Our democratic protests will continue,” Mr. Gogoi said before he was herded into a bus.

“We exercised restraint while dealing with the protestors to ensure hassle-free movement of VIPs,” Mukesh Agarwal, additional director general of police, said.

Sikkim CM missing

Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, whose party Sikkim Democratic Front is one of the 14 constituents of NEDA, skipped the conclave being held less than 24 hours after BJP’s setback in Karnataka. However, NEDA convenor and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said representatives of his party are attending.

The chief ministers of six of the eight northeastern states where BJP is ruling on its own or in coalition are attending the conclave. They are Assam’s Sarbananda Sonowal, Arunachal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu, Manipur’s Nongthombam Biren Singh, Meghalaya’s Conrad Sangma, Nagaland’s Neiphiu Rio and Tripura’s Biplab Kumar Deb.

Mizoram is the only State in the Northeast where the Congress rules.

While Mr. Sangma heads the National People’s Party, Mr. Rio is the key leader of Nationalist Democratic Progressive Front.

Two parties that have either left or ejected from the NEDA in the past few months are People’s Party of Arunachal and Naga People’s Front of Nagaland.