Assam: Anti-CAA Protests From Today

Various organizations will begin fresh agitations against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Assam as it completed one year that the Centre passed the bill in the parliament on December 11, 2019. The organizations will also seek the release of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) chief Akhil Gogoi during the protests as it has been one year that he is under police custody.

According reports, the agitation will be launched from Sivasagar in eastern Assam. It will then be carried out throughout the rest of the state. The agitators have been demanding that the CAA be rolled back.

All Assam Students' Union (AASU) has also announced that it will revive the anti-CAA protests on December 12, the one-year 'anniversary' of the agitation. To be undertaken with the name – 'Gana Hoonkar', meaning public outcry, the agitation aims to press for repealing of the act.

"The government has to repeal the imposed anti-Assam law that has already taken the lives of five Assamese citizens including innocent students. The families of the five martyrs and AASU will continue to seek justice," a press release by AASU quoted general secretary Shankar Jyoti Baruah and President Dipanka Kumar Nath as saying. 

Last year, the students' unions in Assam launched a protest against the CAA after it was passed by Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Parliament. The protests turned violent and five people were killed in the resulting in the death of five people. The movement was halted due to COVID-19 pandemic. 

The contentious act, against which massive protests had broken out across the country in 2019, extends Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Various student groups, as well as political parties, have opposed the act, claiming that it damages the secular fabric of India and is, thus, unconstitutional.