Several organizations in Assam have renewed their protests against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The anti-CAA protests, which continued to rock the state till February, were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Protest rallies were taken out on Friday across the state by several organisations, including Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad, Lachit Sena, besides students, and youth organisations of ethnic communities.
Addressing the rallies, leaders of the organisations said, the people will give a “fitting reply” to the BJP-led dispensation in Assam in the assembly elections for allegedly “betraying the people by imposing the CAA upon them despite protests, since its introduction in Parliament till its enactment”.
Bir Lachit Sena leader Srinkhal Chaliha while addreesing a massive rally in Sivasagar said that they never accept the CAA.
He further said that KMSS chief Akhil Gogoi will contest the upcoming Assembly polls from Sivasagar constituency.
The state assembly polls are due in March-April next year. The AASU, which had launched the six-year long anti- foreigners Assam Movement (1979-1985), has called for a ‘Rono Hungkar’ (clarion call for war against CAA) from Saturday on the first ‘anniversary’ of the anti-CAA agitation.
The AASU hoisted black flag at its headquarters in Guwahati and displayed such flags in seven northeast states under the aegis of the North East Students Organisation (NESO) demanding to scrap the Act.
“The government has to repeal the anti-Assam law that has claimed the lives of five Assamese citizens, including innocent students. The families of the deceased people and the AASU will continue to seek justice,” said AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath and general secretary Shankar Jyoti Baruah in a statement.
Students from different educational institutes including Cotton College organised a protest meeting at the city’s Dighalipukhuri.
A number of anti-CAA activists while speaking at the meeting slammed the BJP government and vowed to intensify protests against the Act.