GUWAHATI: Hundreds of people staged protests against the Centre’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the capital city on Saturday exactly a year after five persons were killed during the protests.
Protesters vowed to intensify the agitation if the Centre went ahead to implement the CAA, which has been challenged by over 140 petitions in the apex court. Deafening roars of “ami CAA namanu (we will not accept CAA)” reverberated across the city and the state as the day saw people organizing bike rallies in protest against CAA and people from Sadiya to Dhubri paid tributes to five people who died on December 12 last year during protests against the Act.
All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) organised a public homage programme at Hatigaon High School here to pay tributes to the five in its ‘Gana Hunkar’ (public outcry) protests across the state, while Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) too observed Sankalp Divas (pledge day) and vowed to renew its movement against CAA. Both
Aasu and KMSS spearheaded the protests and were slowed down due to the matric examinations and later the Covid-19 pandemic brought the agitation to a halt.
Coordination Committee Against Citizenship Amendment Act president and litterateur Hiren Gohain, who participated in the pledge day here at Lakhidhar Bora Kshetra, said, “We have always opposed CAA since it was a bill (CAB). We have always considered it unconstitutional and a vicious instrument divides the people. It will not only spoil the relationships among the communities of Assam but also allow the government to exercise arbitrary power to scuttle the NRC, which is the important outcome of the Assam Accord.”
“The Narendra Modi-led government has numbers in Parliament, so they passed the law… But CAA must be repealed... the agitation against CAA will continue until the contentious law is scrapped,” Aasu chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya said, after paying tributes to the five persons killed last year.
He asserted that their sacrifice will not go in vain, adding that they will not accept CAA.
“The Act is decisive, anti-indigenous and violates the historic Assam Accord. We don’t want to live as second-class citizenship in our own land. Arbitrariness of the ruthless state machinery and its agencies towards peaceful protesters is imprinted deep in our memories. The lives lost will not be forgotten,” he said.
Singer Zubeen Garg, a front-ranking leader of anti-CAA agitation, urged the government to speak with the anti-CAA agitators before implementing the citizenship law.
“We will not accept CAA. We are firm on our stand against CAA. We have urged the government not to implement the Act hurriedly without the discussion with the agitators. If they implement it, there will be more agitation. We will not let it go,” Garg said.
Assam Congress said the five youths of Assam during the anti-CAA movement were “shot dead only in the interest of Bangladeshis”. Assam PCC chief Ripun Bora said the 20 lakh mass signatures collected against CAA will be sent to President Ram Nath Kovind.
All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) also remembered the five deceased on Saturday. Aasu, AIUDF and Coordination Committee Against Citizenship Amendment Act, among others, felicitated the family of the five “martyrs” Sam Stefford (17) of Hatigaon, Dipanjal Das (17) from Chaygaon in Kamrup district, Iswar Nayak (25) from Udalguri, Abdul Alim (23) from Barpeta and Dwijendra Panging from Dibrugarh.