GUWAHATI: The Northeast singed amid protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2016 on a day Prime Minister, Narendra Modi dedicated a slew of development projects to three states of the region which he claimed was in sync with Centre’s policy of inclusive development for a “New India”.
Under the umbrella of North East Students Organisation (NESO), activists of the All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU) staged anti-CAB rallies in Itanagar during Modi’s visit to the Arunachal capital on Saturday morning while members of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) here waved black flags near Swahid Nyas Bhawan in the Uzan Bazar area here as Modi left the city for Arunachal Pradesh.
On Friday, AASU members shouted slogans against the Bill and waved black flags to the Prime Minister while his convoy made its way towards Raj Bhavan from the LGBI Airport amid tight police vigil and security arrangements in the city and its periphery.
Speaking to The Shillong Times from Itanagar on Saturday, AAPSU general secretary, Tobom Dai said, “Under NESO, AAPSU along with higher education students staged protests against the Bill and the Prime Minister’s visit. The people of Arunachal Pradesh in particular and Northeast in general should not be treated as guinea pigs by the Central leaders for experimentation.”
“For the sake of vote-bank politics we should not be made sacrificial goats, the BJP leaders at the Centre must remember that there is an India beyond Kolkata also,” Dai, who also addressed protesting students at Rajiv Gandhi University and North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology in Itanagar, said.
The AAPSU leader called for immediate repeal of the contentious Bill and warned the central government against imposing the Bill on the Northeast. “Such bulldozing would foment more trouble in the Northeastern region and AAPSU and NESO would not remain silent,” Dai said.
According to reports, the Centre is likely to table the Bill in Rajya Sabha next week. The Budget session of Parliament ends on February 13 even as a section of Opposition parties in Delhi, including Congress, have assured organisations such as AASU, Forum Against Citizenship Act Amendment Bill (FACAAB) to oppose the contentious legislation in the House.
In Upper Assam, the Tai Ahom Yuva Parishad clamped a 12-hour Assam bandh in protest against the Prime Minister’s visit. Effigies of the Prime Minister and tyres were burnt by protesters across various locations in the state.
Meanwhile, addressing a sea of people at Changsari near here in the afternoon, Modi, without making any reference to the protests against the Bill, dropped hints in favour of the “persecuted” minority communities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister, while pledging to secure the future of Assam, said that his government was against “vote-bank politics”, in an oblique criticism of the previous dispensation, and that he was concerned about the future of the state.
Earlier, in the Itanagar rally, he pledged to work for inclusive development in the Northeast while taking a dig at the previous dispensations by saying that they had neglected the potential of the region.
