Guwahati, Feb 28 (PTI) The United Opposition Forum, Assam on Wednesday has decided to step up protests and send a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu against the proposed notification rules of of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Congress state president Bhupen Kumar Borah said.
The leaders of 16 opposition parties, including the Congress, All India Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, left parties, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and others, will meet Governor Gulab Chand Kataria on Thursday and submit a memorandum to the President through him requesting that the law should be implemented in the state, Borah told reporters after the meeting of opposition parties here.
The opposition leaders will march to the Raj Bhavan on Thursday before submitting the memorandum.
‘If CAA is implemented in the state, the opposition parties will launch widespread protests against the Act across the state and a detailed agitation programme will be chalked out against the ‘unconstitutional and communal” Act’, Borah said.
An Assam bandh will be called the very next day of the Act coming into force and the opposition parties will gherao the Janata Bhawan (the state secretariat) to bring all administrative work to a halt in protest against its implementation, he added.
The opposition parties appealed to all intellectuals, litterateurs, students, youth, cultural personalities and all sections of the society who love their state to be united in opposing the Act.
Besides Borah, the meeting was attended by the forum’s general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi of AJP, AITMC’s Ripun Bora, Raijor Dal’s Akhil Gogoi, AAP’s Bhaben Choudhury, CPI(M)’s Ishfakur Rahman, among others.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said earlier this month that the CAA rules will be notified and implemented before the Lok Sabha elections.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act was passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, and was notified on December 12 of the same year but the rules are yet to be notified by the Union Home Ministry.
The Citizenship Act, 1955 was amended to provide Indian citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsis and Christian religious minorities fleeing persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till 2014.
The protests against the Act in the state were led primarily by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) but were distinct from the national perspective with the focus not on religion but to assert the state cannot be a dumping ground for foreigners, be it Hindu, Muslim or of any other religion.
The protests turned violent with five persons losing their lives in police firing and the arrest of KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi along with four others, to be called off only with the onset of the pandemic.