AASU, SAKP march to Raj Bhawan

Indigenous cause

GUWAHATI, June 6: In what could be called a rerun of sorts of what they had done during the Assam Agitation, leaders and cadres of both the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and the Sadou Axam Karmachari Parishad (SAKP) girded up their loins and marched to the Raj Bhawan in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 on Wednesday.

The leaders and members of the two organizations of the State got into a huddle at Swahid Nyas at Uzan Bazar in the city on Wednesday and marched to the Raj Bhawan on foot from there.

On way to the Raj Bhawan, AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said: “We aren’t going to accept the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 under any circumstances. The Assam Government can’t shrug off its responsibility just by assuaging the people of the State not to be apprehensive of the Bill.”

AASU president Dipanko Kumar Nath said: “We won’t stay calm till the Bill is revoked. The Chief Minister has to make the Prime Minister yield to our demand. The repercussion for any attempt to forcibly impose the Bill on us will be disastrous.”

AASU adviser-in-chief Samujjal Bhattacharjya said: “The State government has to protect the interests of the indigenous people of the State. The State government can’t escape if it doesn’t side with the people of the State. What we’re doing today is just a trailer of what we’re going to do in the days ahead against the Bill.”

SAKP president Basab Chandra Kalita said: “Today’s agitation is part of the decisions we’ve taken together against the Bill. We’re not going to accept such an anti-national Bill. We’re going to stage more such agitations in the coming days.”

The main demand which the AASU and the SAKP have been clamouring about is cancellation of the controversial Bill, besides implementation of the Assam Accord within a specific time-frame and solution of the problem of foreigners once and for all.