Withdraw Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, Else Face Stir: AASU To Centre

GUWAHATI: The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has informed the Centre that the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 must be withdrawn, and also stated that the agitation of the masses against it will continue till the Centre withdraws the same.

The students’ body informed this to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in a telephonic conversation with AASU advisor-in-chief Samujjal Bhattacharyya late Thursday evening. Singh had said that the Centre wishes to resolve the raging controversy over the Bill through discussions with the apex students’ organization of the State which is taking the lead in the issue.

Bhattacharyya then stressed that the “Bill must be withdrawn”. The student leader also added that “foreigners in Assam must be detected and deported based on the cutoff date of March 24 (midnight), 1971, as per the Assam Accord”.

Meanwhile, AASU president Dipankar Kumar Nath and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi informed the media here on Friday that the AASU would inform about the telephonic conversation between the Union Home Minister and AASU advisor-in-chief to the representatives of the 30 ethnic bodies and also the North East Students Organisation (NESO) jointly carrying on the stir against the Bill. They further informed that the agitation would continue till the Bill is withdrawn.

On the other hand, it is apprehended that the Centre would try to pass the Bill during the next session of the Rajya Sabha beginning from January 31. The Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8.

The AASU leaders have further pointed out that once the Bill is passed, the entire exercise of National Citizens’ Register (NRC) would become meaningless and it would be also a gross violation of the Assam Accord. Announcing the next phase of their agitation, the student leaders stated that AASU and 30 other ethnic organizations would carry out a massive anti-Bill rally — ‘Khilonjiar Bajra Ninad’ — in Guwahati on January 23.

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