Guwahati: Months ahead of the assembly polls in Assam state of India, fresh agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was launched by 18 organisations in the state demanding the repeal of the legislation and release of jailed KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi who was taken into custody during the protests last year, news agency PTI reported.
The report said that protest rallies were taken out across the state by the organisations, including Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, All Assam Students Union (AASU), Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad, Lachit Sena, besides students, and youth organisations of ethnic communities.
The agitation began from Sivasagar, where it was launched last year before it was halted due to COVID pandemic, the report said.
The protestors were demanding that the act be rolled back mentioning that the CAA was against the identity, language and cultural heritage of the indigenous people of the state and an immediate release of KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi.
Quoting leaders of the organisation, the report said: “the people will give a fitting reply to the BJP-led dispensation in Assam in the assembly elections for allegedly betraying the people by imposing the CAA upon them despite protests, since its introduction in Parliament till its enactment”.
The state assembly polls are due in March-April next year. The AASU, that had launched the six-year-long anti- foreigners Assam Movement (1979-1985), has called for a ‘Rono Hungkar’ (clarion call for war against CAA) from Saturday on the first ‘anniversary’ of the anti-CAA agitation.
The AASU hoisted the black flag at its headquarters here and displayed such flags in seven northeast states under the aegis of the North East Students Organisation demanding rollback of the CAA, AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya told reporters, the PTI report said.
“The government has to repeal the anti-Assam law that has claimed the lives of five Assamese citizens, including innocent students. The families of the deceased people and the AASU will continue to seek justice,” an AASU press release, issued jointly by its president Dipanka Kumar Nath and general secretary Shankar Jyoti Baruah, said.
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