GUWAHATI: The controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, has kept Assam on the edge.
Forty-six local organisations, which called a statewide bandh on Tuesday in protest against the Centre’s move to pass the bill, are on a collision course with the state government after the latter allegedly started acting arbitrarily to thwart the bandh.
The bill seeks to grant citizenship to the persecuted non-Muslim immigrants of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who migrated to India till December 31, 2014. The local groups and organisations in Assam are, however, viewing it as a move by the Centre to dump Bangladeshi Hindus (read Bengali Hindu immigrants) in the state. They say Assam has already accepted the immigrants who migrated to the state before March 24, 1971 as per the historic Assam Accord which the All Assam Students’ Union had signed with the Rajiv Gandhi government at the Centre in 1985 at the end of six-year-long Assam Agitation.
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According to the accord, the immigrants, irrespective of faith who migrated after March 24, 1971, are to be detected and deported. The local organisations fear if the Citizenship Bill is passed, it will encourage lakhs of Hindus to migrate from Bangladesh.
The Sarbananda Sonowal government has asked people not to participate in the bandh and warned that strict action will be taken against government employees bunking duties on the day. It has ordered that not only schools, colleges, courts or offices, shops and commercial establishments too must function normally or else, their trade licenses will be cancelled.
The government has directed the administration to take action against troublemakers. It directed the police to arrest bandh supporters if they demonstrate at any public place. The government has also warned that if any person is found involved in any sort of vandalism of public property, the cost of renovation will be recovered from the organisation which he or she belongs to.
The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), spearheading the protests against the Citizenship Bill, slammed the government for trying to muzzle the voice of people.
“The Assamese groups and organisations have called the bandh against the Citizenship Bill, for it is a dangerous bill and the people of Assam stand opposed to it. If the controversial bill is passed, the locals will lose their political space besides identity,” KMSS leader and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi told reporters.
He alleged that by trying to pass the bill, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre was trying to foment a communal flare-up between the Assamese and the Bengalis.