Assam polls: AASU holds 11-hour dharna against Nadda's announcement on CAA

GUWAHATI: A day after BJP national president J P Nadda announced that Citizenship (Amendment) Act will be implemented, the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) on Wednesday staged a 11-hour dharna across Assam in protest against the law.

AASU held demonstrations in dozens of towns apart from capital Guwahati and in various sub-divisions of the state.

AASU general secretary Sankarjyoti Barua said, "J P Nadda yesterday insulted the sentiment of the Assamese people when he said CAA will be implemented. Even our chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal is saying the same."

The announcement to implement the CAA amidst the election season is "most unfortunate" for the Assamese society, its culture, language and identity, he added.

The three-phase assembly poll in Assam will begin on Marvh 27.

Nadda had made the statement while releasing the BJP manifesto for Assam here .

"Under no circumstance will we accept the burden of foreigners who came to Assam after 1971. We are for following the date set in the Assam Accord," AASU President Dipanka Kumar Nath.

According to the Assam Accord names of all foreigners coming to Assam on or after March 25, 1971 will be detected and deleted from the electoral roll and steps will be taken to deport them.

The objective of the CAA is to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities -- Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

People of these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014 facing religious persecution in their respective countries will not be treated as illegal immigrants, but will be granted citizenship.

Releasing the BJP manifesto for Assam election, the party's national president J P Nadda had on Tuesday asserted that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was passed by the Parliament and would be implemented in time.