GUWAHATI: On the first anniversary of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on Friday, the North East Students' Organisation (NESO) registered its protest against the controversial law by hoisting black flags and displaying black banners in towns and cities all over the region.
The NESO, which is the apex students' body of Northeast, said December 11, 2019 was still fresh in the memories of the people of the region as it was on this day that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) had become a law (CAA) following its passage in the Parliament. It said despite continued opposition by the region's indigenous people, the Centre had enacted the law.
"Through the observation of the day as black day, we wanted to give a message to the Government of India that we still stand united against this law. We also sought to remind our people and future generations of the political injustice that Government of India had done to the indigenous people of Northeast," NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa told The New Indian Express.
The NESO appealed to people to "keep fighting for the just cause of our God-given right".
In Assam, black flags were hoisted and black banners displayed by the members of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU). Samujjal Bhattacharya, advisor to the AASU, said the students would continue with the movement till CAA was repealed.
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"The Central government had passed the CAB in Parliament in total disregard of the sentiments of people in Northeast. CAA violates the Assam Accord. It is anti-indigenous, anti-Northeast, communal and unconstitutional. We will never accept this and we will keep fighting to ensure that this law is scrapped," Bhattacharya said.
Through CAA, the Centre wants to protect the non-Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh besides Pakistan and Afghanistan who migrated till December 31, 2014.
However, as per the Assam Accord, signed between the Rajiv Gandhi government and the AASU in 1985 at the end of six-year long bloody Assam Agitation, the immigrants, irrespective of their faith who entered Assam after March 24 (midnight), 1971, have to be detected and deported.
During the height of anti-CAA protests in Northeast last year, five people, including teenagers, had lost their lives in Assam. The protestors had virtually held the state to ransom for a few days.