Aasu: CAA opposers more patriotic than its supporters

GUWAHATI: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Kokrajhar that there have been attempts to mislead the people of Assam and the northeast over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), All Assam Students' Union (Aasu) chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya on Saturday hit back at the PM by saying that people opposing the CAA are more patriotic than those supporting the Act.
Addressing an anti-CAA rally at Pathsala in lower Assam's Barpeta district, Bhattacharyya said people voicing concern over CAA love their state and their nationalism and affection for the nation can not be questioned. He added that the Centre can not "bargain with anti-CAA agitators" by granting constitutional safeguards to the indigenous communities of Assam by implementing Clause 6 of the Assam Accord.
On Saturday evening, Aasu and 30 other allied organisations took out torch rallies against the CAA across district headquarters of the state.
"Indigenous people in one part of India are struggling to safeguard their identity in the wake of illegal influx. But the BJP-led government brought the CAA to grant citizenship to foreigners in their homeland. This is anti-national. Communal policy to give citizenship on the basis of religion is anti-national. Breaching the preamble of the Constitution to bring CAA is anti-national," said Bhattacharyya.
Even as Modi gave assurance that the CAA won't harm the interests of the people of Assam, the Aasu chief adviser lashed out at the PM for failing to fully seal the 268 km-long Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam, questioning his government's commitment to solve the problem of illegal infiltration to the state.
While BJP is insisting on addressing the CAA concerns of the people of Assam by implementing Clause 6 of the Accord to provide constitutional safeguards to the indigenous tribes and communities, Aasu does not want to relate Clause 6 with CAA. Sources in the Union home ministry-constituted high-powered committee on implementation of Clause 6 told TOI that the report of the panel headed by retired Gauhati High Court judge Biplab Kumar Sharma is most likely to be tabled before the Centre next week.
"We warn the government not to bargain on CAA by tempting us with Clause 6. The Clause 6 of the Assam Accord needs to be implemented in Assam as the state had to take the burden of foreigners who came to the state between 1951 and 1971 unlike any other state of India. CAA must be scrapped and Clause 6 of the Assam Accord has to be implemented as promised by the government in 1985," Bhattacharyya said.
Significantly, AGP MLA and party's vice-president Pabindra Kumar Deka also joined the protest rally. The senior AGP leader dared AGP president Atul Bora and other leaders of the party 'supporting' the CAA to convene a central general council meeting and prove their stand right. Despite approaching the Supreme Court to scrap CAA, the three ministers of AGP in the Sonowal cabinet, including president Atul Bora, have been charged with going soft on CAA by a section of party workers.