GUWAHATI: All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) during a telephonic conversation on Friday told the Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh that the central government must drop the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 in the greater interests of indigenous population in Assam and the region as a whole.
The AASU adviser Dr Samujjal Bhattacharrya and general secretary, Lurinjyoti Gogoi following their telephonic conversationwith the Home Minister, told media here that the Union Home Minister had called up the AASU leaders to get information about the situation in Assam where protest against the Bill is getting louder.
The AASU leader said Rajnath Singh advocated for dialogue to reolve the issues arising out of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.
“We have told the Union Home Minister very firmly and candidly that Citizenship (Amendment) Bill which has violated the Assam Accord and will devastate the indigenous communities in the state must be scrapped and there is no alternative way to it,” the AASU leaders claimed.
The AASU Adviser said that as the Bill was going to protect illegal migrants from Bangladesh, the agitation against it must be intensified given that the Central government was likely to get it passed in Rajya Sabha on January 31 next.
The AASU which is a signatory to Assam Accord and demanded for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, has maintains that it was not going to allow enactment of the Bill that intended to grant Indian citizenship to Bangladeshi migrants on the basis of religion and in violation of the the basis clause of Assam Accord.
The Assam Accord signed on August 15, 1985 prescribes for detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants taking March 25, 1971 as the cut off date.