AASU vows to continue agitation until the Citizenship bill not scrapped

The protesters took out the torch rally from the AASU office and shouted slogans against the BJP-led both central and state governments and demanded to scrap the bill immediately.

Massive protests are going on across the state by various organisations against the bill.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, which is aimed to grant Indian citizenship to the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya said that the Union government must realise the sentiment of the indigenous people of the north eastern region and it is threat to the language, culture and identity of the indigenous people.

“We are opposing it. The people of seven states of NE are opposing this bill. This bill must go and the Assam centric and NE centric movement are on. They must scrap this bill, otherwise the movement will be continued,” Bhattacharya said.

On the other hand, former Assam Chief Minister and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leader, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, said that according to the Keshabananda Bharati versus Union government case, the parliament has right to amend the constitution, but they have no right to change the salient features, basic structure of the constitution.

“India is a secular country. How they are going to change it. They had already lost three major states and in parliament, they are going to lose the battle and number will be decreased. Therefore, they come to an assessment that through West Bengal, they can increase it,” Mahanta said.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)