In a move to convince the agitators, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday assured the people of Assam that ‘Assamese’ will remain as the state language of Assam forever and that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act will not affect the demography of Assam.
Sonowal said this while addressing a press conference on Friday at his official residence at Brahmaputra state guest House in Guwahati.
“Assamese will remain the official language if the state and my government is committed to protecting the language, culture, literature, and tradition of the state,” He said.
“Not a single new person is coming to Assam through CAA. Only the persecuted people, who had been living among us for decades, can only apply for citizenship due to passing of CAA,” Sonowal said addressing the media.
Blaming a section with vested interest for the recent violence, Sonowal said that mis-information is being spread that one crore, 1.5 crore or 50 lakh Bangladesh I Hindu will come to Assam through CAA.
“This is false. We are going to make the list of people, who apply for citizenship, public. The people will then realize that only a negligible number of people will be benefited from the Act,” he said.
He further appealed people for the state to have faith in him. “I went to the Supreme Court against the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act. I have always remained with the people of Assam. I shall be with the people abs I am in politics to serve the people only,” he said.
He said that clause 6 of Assam accord is the soul of the Accord and that only clause 6 can give constitutional safeguard to the people of Assam.
“The clause 6 committee will submit their report to the central government by one month’s time and I hope things will get clear after that,” he said.
Commenting in the situation in Assam, he said that the situation is improving and that the government has already created a special investigation team (SIT) for probing the violence and action will be taken as per the report of the SIT.