AASU president Utpal Sarma.
Credit: X/@Utpal_Assam
Guwahati: The influential All Assam Students' Union (AASU) on Friday announced that it would not allow the BJP government to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants who entered India before 2014 under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as it violates the Assam Accord of 1985.
Members of the AASU took to the streets on Friday in each district headquarters and protested against the government's move providing shield to the migrants under the CAA.
"We opposed the CAA when it was passed, we will continue to oppose it as we can't accept foreigners beyond the cut-off date of March 24, 1971, which was agreed in the Assam Accord of 1985," AASU president Utpal Sarma told reporters in Guwahati.
Sarma said detection and deportation of all post-March 1971 migrants from Bangladesh must be done irrespective of religion as agreed in the Assam Accord. "Assam Accord decided March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of all foreigners from Assam, irrespective of religion. But the BJP government is playing communal politics by trying to give citizenship to the non-Muslim migrants till 2024 through the CAA," Sarma said.
AASU is an influential organisation, which had spearheaded the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement or Assam Agitation (1979-1985), which culminated in the Assam Accord. The students' body have also been agitating against the CAA.
Sarma's announcement about fresh agitation came amid reports about the state home department's recent directive for not referring the cases of non-Muslim migrants till 2015 to Foreigner Tribunals. CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said the CAA would take care of the non-Muslim migrants till 2014.
The fresh protest was staged amid an eviction drive being carried out by the BJP government targeting the Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam.
Anti-CAA agitation in Assam turned violent in 2019 when it was passed. At least five anti-CAA agitators died during the protest.
Pan-Northeast NRC
Sarma said members of the North East Students' Organisation (NESO) would take to the streets on August 18 with demand for detection of foreigners, implementation of the NRC and exempting the entire Northeast from the purview of the CAA.