GUWAHATI: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit Assam on Saturday and address a rally in Guwahati.
The visit coincides with statewide protests being staged by people against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The Pradesh Congress is excited about the stalwart’s visit.
“During his day-long stay, Rahul Gandhiji will address a party rally and pay homage to five martyrs (people killed in Guwahati during recent protests against the CAA),” senior Assam Congress spokesman Apurba Bhattacharya told this newspaper.
He said the Congress leader was also likely to visit the houses of Sam Stafford and Dipanjal Das, two of the five victims, if there was no “administrative problem”.
To a query, Bhattacharya said, “The visit is not sudden. We are not considering it from the point of view for political mileage. He is coming to stand by the people of Assam who are out there on the streets”.
Assam Congress chief Ripun Bora also said Gandhi was coming to the state to show his solidarity with the people.
Meanwhile, some organisations registering their protests against the CAA reacted to Gandhi’s visit. They made it clear that they would not allow any political party to politicize the issue.
“For over three decades since the Assam Accord was signed at the end of historic Assam Agitation, the Congress was in power at the Centre but it did nothing to solve the Bangladeshi issue. They, in fact, had brought the IMDT (Illegal Migrants’ Determination Tribunal) Act to rehabilitate Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants. And during the updation of the NRC (National Register of Citizens), the Congress had batted for citizenship to all immigrants who came till 2014. We have also seen how the BJP, or for that matter AGP (Asom Gana Parishad) and CPI-M, dealt with the issue,” chief advisor to AASU, Samujjal Bhattacharya, told journalists.
The Asom Jatiatabadi Yuva Chhatra Parishad said Gandhi’s visit would “confuse” people who were staging the spontaneous protests. It warned political parties not to play politics with the emotions of people.