GUWAHATI: Continuing with their opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, several organisations and opposition parties in Assam staged protests on Thursday.
Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), which has been vitriolic in its attack of the ruling BJP for pushing the “communal” Bill by ignoring the voices of the people, appealed to various protesting organisations to unite to put up a united fight.
“It is time for all organisations in Assam to unite and put up a fight together against the Bill. If All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) says it will unite, the KMSS is ready to make any sacrifice,” KMSS leader and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi said at a massive sit-in demonstration in Guwahati.
He said the Centre had not invited the KMSS for the consultations on the Bill knowing well that it would not compromise on the issue.
“We won’t accept the Bill, for it is the enemy of the Assamese people. People know in the next 20-30 years, 1.9 crores Hindus will migrate to Assam and the Northeast from Bangladesh and ruin us,” he claimed.
He said the Bill was against the Constitution and would destroy Assam’s secular fabrics and democracy.
There are divided opinions on the Bill in the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) which is a constituent of the state’s coalition government. While party leadership endorsed the Bill, another section stood opposed to it. The AGP’s Guwahati unit on Thursday said it would keep opposing the Bill. Two-time former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is also opposed to the Bill.
The Congress staged a protest at the Assembly complex by shouting slogans against the Bill as well as BJP’s envisaged country-wide National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Minority-based All India United Democratic Front petitioned Shah demanding the Bill’s withdrawal. The party described the Bill as “unconstitutional”.