By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 11: It was a day of protests in the state on Saturday as black flags, banners and sloganeering marked the second anniversary of the passage of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. The protests were organised to remind the Centre that resentment still continues against the CAA and that the Northeastern states would not budge from their demand scrapping of the Act.
The Lok Sabha had passed the then Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on December 9, 2019 and was cleared by the Rajya Sabha two days later. The President of India had given his accent to the Bill on December 12, making it an Act.
Across the state, the day was observed as a ‘black day’ as members of the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) put up banners and black flags in prominent locations.
“This observation is to remind our people of another political injustice perpetrated by the Government of India against the indigenous people of the Northeast and despite stiff opposition they went ahead and passed it on December 11. That is why we have marked it as a ‘black day’ for the Northeast and all the states of the region today observed the black flag day displaying banners and black flag,” NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa said on Saturday.
“It went off smoothly and peacefully. We only wanted to send a message to the Government of India that we will never accept CAA,” he added.
Asked about NESO’s future course of action, Jyrwa said, “We will sit in the days to come and decide.”
