Guwahati, March 11: Opposition parties and students’ organisations in Assam have slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre for notifying the rules under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA-2019) on Monday.
The rules, called the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, will enable minorities persecuted on religious grounds in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to acquire citizenship in India.
Lambasting the BJP government, Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia expressed concern over the move that paves way for implementation of the contentious legislation in the country.
“The central government has, just for political mileage ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, betrayed the sentiments of the people and disregarded the citizens of the state by paving the way for implementing CAA in Assam and the rest of the country. This is very unfortunate,” Saikia reacted in a video clip sent to the media.
Notably, the Centre’s notification of the rules under CAA 2019 comes in the midst of simmering tension with various Opposition parties, under the banner of United Opposition Forum, Assam, and students’ organisations such as the All-Assam Students Union (AASU) gearing up for a mass agitation against the contentious legislation.
The senior Congress leader further accused the BJP government of not living up to the pre-poll promise made in 2016 to protect the Assamese people, its land, culture and tradition.
“However, by providing citizenship to foreigners who have entered the state till December 2014, the central government has betrayed the people of Assam and defaulted on its promise made before the 2016 elections,” he said.
Saikia also accused the central government and the BJP-led government in the state of being disrespecting and violating the Assam Accord of 1985 as well as its mandate of detecting and expelling foreigners entering Assam after March 25, 1971.
The Congress leader, reassuring the party’s support for the citizens of the state and their rights, said that he anticipated a mass agitation against the implementation of the CAA across Assam in the coming days.
On the other hand, the influential All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), which had launched a six-year agitation in Assam, demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants in 1979, maintained that it would continue its legal fight against the Centre’s move to implement CAA 2019 in the state.