Those who ridicule agitations must study history, says Aasu general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi

GUWAHATI: A day after chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said another anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) stir at this time would not get public support, the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) president and former All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi on Wednesday hit back at Sarma.
He said the supporters and leaders of the movement against the legislation have been energised by the farmers’ victory in forcing the Union government to withdraw the three farm laws. The agitation in the last two years of the pandemic, he said, has been lying dormant and not died down.
He added that people are anguished over the law and that's why the government has not been able to frame rules to implement it. “India got independence through agitation. The Assam Accord, too, was signed after the Assam Agitation. Those who ridicule agitations should study history," Gogoi categorically said.
Sarma had said that the people, who are struggling for livelihood in the pandemic-hit economy, will not come forward to support any agitation at this juncture.
Gogoi, on the other hand, gave a clarion call to all anti-CAA groups irrespective of their contraditions and ideologies, to join the mass movement with the sole demand to scrap CAA and resist Hindu Bangladeshis from getting citizenship in Assam. “The Centre's decision to withdraw the farm bills has made the anti-CAA movement even more relevant,” Gogoi added.
Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi, another face of the anti-CAA movement, in a veiled reference to Aasu had blamed them for ending the movement by shifting it from the streets to the playgrounds.
Though Akhil also desired to relaunch the anti-CAA movement, he was uncertain whether the protests would gain momentum after a hiatus of two years.
This December will be the second year of CAA being passed in Parliament. Though activists of the movement are drawing inspiration from the farmers’ agitation, the leading lights of the movement are still not sure how the stir could be reignited.
“The Aasu executive has not chalked out a new protest schedule yet. But our stand is firm and clear. Anti-people legislations like CAA should also be withdrawn,” Aasu president Dipanka Nath told TOI.
“People did not have to agitate for the growth and development that is seen all around----- infrastructure, connectivity, education. Development has gained a new dimension in a stable environment in the state. The warnings to relaunch the anti-CAA protests may be a ploy of a certain section to bring development to a halt,” said BJP national general secretary Dilip Saikia.