The members of Dibrugarh district AASU and 28 organisations on Saturday protested against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 at Thana Charialia here.
The protesters holding play cards and banners shouted slogans against BJP ruled Sarbananda Sonowal government.
Anil Gogoi, central organisation Secretary of AASU, said, “We demand for scraping of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 because the bill was anti- Assamese. We will teach the BJP a lesson in upcoming panchayat elections because they have playing with the sentiments of Assamese people.”
He added, “We are against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 because it will have an adverse affect on the Assamese society. The government is planning to bring Hindu Bangladeshi in Assam which is intolerable.”
Sankar Jyoti Baruah, the Dibrugarh general secretary of AASU’s Dibrugarh unit said, “According to the Assam Accord of 1985, anyone who has entered Assam after March 24, 1971 should be treated as an illegal migrant irrespective of one’s religious affiliation. Our demand is that it should be strictly implemented. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 should be scrapped immediately since the culture, language and identity of Assamese people are at stake.”
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which was tabled in the parliament in August, 2016, seeks to give citizenship to religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan in India who have come here till December 31 of 2014.