Assam: Students’ Union begin 12-hour hunger strike against CAA

Silchar: The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), along with 30 other organisations on Sunday, began their 12-hour-long hunger strike against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state.

The hunger strike started Sunday morning and will continue till 6:00pm, AASU members said. They said this is a series of agitations they are staging. A massive bike rally was taken out in Dibrugarh and several other districts of the state on March 7.

Assam previously witnessed violent protests in December 2019 against the controversial legislation that seeks to grant citizenship to religious minorities from Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya on Sunday told HT that they are staging democratic non-violent protests across Assam and other northeastern states in their fight against the implementation of CAA.

“CAA is an injustice towards the people of Assam and northeast. 53 petitions from Assam and Tripura have been submitted before the Supreme Court against it since December 2019,” Bhattacharya said.

He said they would burn the copies of CAA rules on the day it will be announced and warned of more protests. “We’ll burn the copies of CAA rules in all the district headquarters in Assam on the day the central government announces it. After that, there will be a series of satyagraha and other non-violent democratic agitations,” he said.

Union home minister Amit Shah had in February said the CAA rules would be notified and implemented before the Lok Sabha elections.

According to Bhattacharya, CAA is not applicable in the inner-line states of the northeast, including in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur. It also excludes five districts that fall under the sixth schedule of the Constitution of India and three hill districts of Assam.

“Our fundamental question is, if the CAA is bad for Mizoram or Arunachal Pradesh, how is it good for Assam? If it is wrong for Assam’s Kokrajhar and Karbi Anglong, how is it good for Nagaon and Kamrup? We cannot be considered as dumping grounds,” he said.

He said that the AASU is leading the arguments in the Supreme Court against the implementation of CAA and the top court has agreed to hear their side separately. Out of 234 petitions, 53 are from Assam and Tripura, according to him.

“Northeast is different from other parts of the country because we have received most of the illegal migrants. There was an Assam movement, and the government signed the Assam Accord in the 1980s. We’ll keep protesting against CAA till the end,” Bhattacharya said.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said that CAA has become a law and there is no point protesting against it now.

“They should have protested before it was passed in the parliament in 2019. I respect those who are protesting, but they should rather challenge it before the Supreme Court, like the Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act,” Sarma said.

Responding to the CM’s statement, Bhattacharya said that IMDT was challenged in the top court and was scrapped.

“IMDT was scrapped by the Supreme Court in 2005, and before that, we fought at court, as well as, staged protests across Assam. It was democratic agitation at that time, and we are doing the same this time too,” he added.

Assam police recently increased the security arrangements in the areas where anti-CAA are taking place. CM Sarma on Sunday issued a warning against the political parties to stay away from calling for bandh and agitations.

“We cannot interfere in activities of student organisations, but if any political party calls for bandh against CAA, we’ll lodge complaints before the election commission and they may lose their party registration,” Sarma said.