GUWAHATI: The student fraternity of Northeastern universities has declared a total shutdown of all universities and colleges in the North East on Wednesday in view of the Supreme Court’s hearing on the petitions filed challenging the validity of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019.
The Centre had on January 10, 2020, notified the contentious legislation amid protests and prior to the apex court’s verdict on the validity of the Act, termed as “discriminatory” and “unconstitutional, by the various organisations and activists leading the anti-CAA movement across the region.
In reference to the present social, cultural, political and economic environment of the country, the fraternity has also prepared a charter of demands to be met by the states and the Centre, which includes among others abrogation of CAA, implementation of Assam Accord and implementation of Inner Line Permit as an Act under the Constitution of India for the entire North East, a statement said.
The universities in the North East comprise Gauhati University, Dibrugarh University, North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Tezpur University, Assam Women’s University (AWU), Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Nagaland University, Rajiv Gandhi University, and NERIST.
The fraternity has in its charter of demands also underlined the need of a clear refugee policy for India and sealing of the porous India-Bangladesh border that has been largely responsible for illegal immigration threatening the indigenous and ethnic identities of the Northeastern region.
“We demand that the state governments increase spending to protect languages and cultures whose existence is being threatened by modernisation,” the student fraternity of Northeastern universities said in the statement.
“There will be no formation of any student organisation by the Northeastern universities but only a platform to keep the coordination among each other. Rather, we will be in solidarity with the prevailing student organisations and will be raising the voice for the betterment of the society,” it added.
