GUWAHATI: Loud protests against the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 rented the air in the heart of Assam’s capital city where 30 ethnic organisations and All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) organised ‘Braja Ninad’ (thunder of protest) on Wednesday.
The mass protest rally held at Latasil Playgound in the city was addressed by prominent leaders of various ethnic organizations, students’ organisations, editors, intellectuals, singers, artists and cultural leaders etc.,
The protest rally warned the BJP-led government at the Centre against enacting the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 defying the raging protests in the Northeast region.
The massive participation in the protest rally spoke volume of grave concern of ethnic communities of the region over the contentious Bill that has been already passed in Lok Sabha.
All the speakers addressing the rally highlighted how this Bill that seeks to grant Indian citizenship to six persecuted minority communities from neighbouring Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, would jeopardise rights of ethnic communities in the region thereby posing threat to their identity.
The president of the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), Samuel Jyrwa terming the Bill a grave threat to the identity of the entire ethnic communities in the region said, “We have to intensify our region-wide movement against the Bill which has been passed in Lok Sabha, as the Centre is planning to get it passed in Rajya Sabha too.”
The AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi terming Sarbananda Sonowal is a spineless Chief Minister of the 21st Century said Sonowal should remember his own efforts and fight in the past for protection of the rights of the indigenous people. “It is time the chief minister should leaf through the pages of history of the movement for change he was involved in,” the AASU leader said.
The All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) president, Promod Boro addressing the rally said, “We are a fighting race and we have to keep fighting for our rights following the ideals of erstwhile leaders of the state like Gopinath Bardoloi, Bhimbar Deuri, Rupnath Brahma etc. Narendra Modi and the BJP should not make the mistake of considering people of Assam a weak lot.”
The general secretary of All Assam Tribal Sangha, Aditya Khakhlari warned that BJP leaders and members would be preventing from stepping into tribal-dominated areas in Assam if the BJP-led government at the Centre failed to withdraw the Citizenship Bill immediately.