In a whirlwind tour of the Northeast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to allay the fears against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill. He also unveiled a slew of projects in the region.

Continuing his 'Act East' thrust built over a dozen visits to the region since he became Prime Minister, Modi went to Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura amid widespread protests against the Bill.

People in the region fear that the Bill will increase the influx of foreigners from Bangladesh and reduce them to a minority in their own land.

The Prime Minister tried to address these fears in all the three states and said that the Bill is not against the interest of the people.

"We must understand the pain of people forced to flee their homes and leave behind all they own. Be it from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh... they were all part of India once, but after Partition they became minorities in their countries," the PM said.

He landed in Guwahati Friday night, and on Saturday, he had a busy day laying the foundation stone of a bridge over the Brahmaputra, inaugurating the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Changsari, and announcing a new gas pipeline between Guwahati and Barauni which will connect the region with the national gas grid.

He then flew to Arunachal Pradesh where he laid the foundation stone of a greenfield airport and then went to Tripura for a rally before returning to Delhi.

PM Modi's visit was marred by protests. Black flags were shown to him on Friday in Guwahati by All Assam Students Union, demonstrators staged a nude protest in front of the Assam secretariat, and black balloons greeted him over Ujjayanta Palace when he was addressing people at the Astabal Ground.

In Itanagar, Congress workers with black flags, placards and banners were stopped from reaching the venue of the PM's rally at IG Park.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the state was thankful for PM Modi's visit. "From the ramparts of the Red Fort, the PM had proudly said how #NorthEast has come closer to Delhi. Couldn't have been more loud assertion of this than the fact that PM Sri @narendramodi has visited only Assam thrice in past as many months (sic)," he tweeted Saturday.

BJP leaders in the region were asked to take pictures of the region's biodiversity and post it on their social networks, especially on Instagram. To this end, Kiren Rijiju tweeted a video of a dense forest in his state.

Among the projects that PM Modi announced in the region were the Tezu airport which will connect Guwahati, Jorhat and Hollongi, the foundation stone of Sela Tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh which will provide all-weather connectivity to Tawang Valley for civilians as well as security forces, the new Doordarshan 24-hour channel for Arunachal Pradesh DD Arun Prabha, the 110 MW Pare Hydroelectric Plant.

He also laid the foundation stone for a campus of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) at Jote, and said that under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, 50 health and wellness centres have been inaugurated.