All Assam Students' Union protests against CAA, observes Black Day

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: Observing December 11 as Black Day, the All Assam Students' Union on Saturday in Lakhimpur district reiterated its demand to roll back the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA).

The CAA was passed by the Parliament on December 11 in 2019 amid nationwide protest against it and the Government of India enacted the Act on the very next day. The controversial Act grants Indian citizenship to six persecuted minority groups— Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian — from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. According to the Act, the people from these communities who had come to India till December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution, will not be treated as illegal immigrants and will be given citizenship. The CAA beneficiaries can live in any State of the nation and the burden of persecuted migrants will be shared by the entire country.

On Saturday, the AASU activists under Lakhimpur district unit displayed black flags and black banners across the district strongly opposing to the Act. The Lakhimpur district committee and North Lakhimpur regional committee of the organization demonstrated the protest at the Swahid Bedi premises of North Lakhimpur town by hoisting a multiple number of black flags.

Taking part in the protest programme, AASU central committee executive member, Dhanmoni Dutta excoriated the Union and State governments, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, regarding the issue. He said, "CAA is against the spirit of the Constitution of India and will turn Assam into a Bangladeshi dumping ground.

The Act has violated the Assam Accord inked in 1985, which set March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for identifying, detaining, and deporting illegally living foreigners, regardless of religion".

Further, the AASU activists paid homage to the five anti-CAA- agitation martyrs—Sam Stafford, Ishwar Nayak, Dipanjal Das, Dwijendra Panging and Abdul Alim and declared that "their sacrifice of the blood shall not be allowed to go in vain". In front of mediapersons, the leaders of the organization made it clear that the AASU would never approve of the contentious Act, which would pose as a tremendous threat to the culture, language, economics and politics of the State. They demanded the Union government to seal the Indo-Bangla border and pay heed to settle the burning infiltration problem of Assam forever as per poll promise instead of granting citizenship to the foreigners in the name of religion violating the secular ideology of the Constitution of India.

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