Guwahati: Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill showed no sign of waning in Assam on Saturday as agitators staged semi-clad protests in Texpur, took out women’s rally in Tinsukia, and organised citizen’s meeting in Guwahati.
In Tezpur town of Sonitpur district in lower Assam, activists of the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) staged a semi-clad protest. Shirtless male members of the organisation demonstrated with messages painted on bare bodies as they took out a massive rally through the main thoroughfares demanding the Bill be scrapped immediately. Protesting in front of the deputy commissioners office, the demonstrators raised slogans against Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.They also demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi explain to them how the people of Assam and the country benefited from demonetisation.
In Tinsukia district of upper Assam, women came together to take out a protest rally and also blocked National Highway 37 for some time. In Guwahati, a citizens’ protest meeting was organised in which prominent personalities from the Assam Sahitya Sabha, AJYCP, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), among others, spoke against the Bill and demanded that it be scrapped. The controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who fled religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and entered India before December 31, 2014, after six years of residence in the country, instead of the current 12 years, even if they do not possess any proper document.
This has not only charred heavy priotests in Assam but also saw students from various educational instiotites and colleges strongly oppose this move. (PTI)
