Violence has not returned to the district known as the country's sugarcane-belt, but political divisions remain as Hindus typically vote for BJP and Muslims for the opposition
Ethnic Assamese protest BJP plans for citizenship to Bangladesh Hindus
Within four months of sweeping to power in India's northeastern state of Assam, the BJP is in serious trouble over its plans to grant citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh.
Published : 24 Oct 2016, 08:42 AM
Updated : 24 Oct 2016, 08:42 AM
The Modi government's decision has struck a raw nerve among indigenous ethnic organisations in Assam and turned them against the BJP government.
While the All Assam Student’s Union (AASU) has, from the very beginning protested against the issue in different ways, Assam Sahitya Sabha, the apex literary body of the state has also joined the protest now.
Although protests had erupted in Assam ever since the issue of granting Indian citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis came up, the number of organizations protesting against it have increased many times over.
Organisations angry over the issue have taken to burning effigies of both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal.
AASU organised a public meeting on Saturday with representatives of cross sections of society where everyone protested against this move by the government.
The participants at the Public meeting – called ‘Raij Mel’ expressed grave concern over the possible impact of granting citizenship to the Hindu migrants who came to Assam after 1971.
File photo
Representatives of different organisations protesting against the move said that the decision by the government will have a major impact on the demography and economy of the state.
Assam will not take the burden of Bangladeshi citizens in any way, regardless of their religious affiliations.
As such, these organisations warned the Sarbanand Sonowal-led state government to not take any step that would jeopardise the future of the indigenous people.
After their discussion in the public meeting, the organisations took a collective decision to unitedly initiate a public movement against the Bill to amend the Citizenship Act.
The public meeting, organised by initiative of the AASU saw representations from 28 indigenous ethnic organisations and eight tribal Sahitya Sabhas.
On the other hand, BJP's alliance partner in the Assam government, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has decided to continue their protest against granting citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis.
In a meeting, the steering committee of the AGP decided to identify foreigners on the basis of the Assam Accord and deport them from the state. There is much opposition among the senior leadership of the AGP regarding citizenship for Hindu Bangladeshis and in time to come, the AGP's alliace with the BJP government might be under threat.
Currently, AGP has two ministers in the Assam government.
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Former chief minister and AGP senior leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, while opposing the BJP government's move, said that all indigenous ethnic organisations must unite under AASU's flag and continue their protest until the government retracts its decision.
After AGP's contrary decision, Assam Chief Minster Sonowal held a meeting with AGP leaders on Saturday and tried to explain the issue to his alliance partner.
Both Mahanta and Sonowal have been president of AASU and Mahanta had led the six-year long Assam movement against illegal migration between 1979-85.
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