A protest by activists of All Assam Students' Union (AASU) over citizenship and CAA. (Representative image)
Credit PTI File Photo
Guwahati: The All Assam Students' Union (AASU), an influential organisation spearheading agitation for a solution to Assam's vexed problem of foreigners, on Wednesday extended support to the ongoing eviction drive carried out by the BJP-led government in the state.
"The eviction drive to clear encroachments on our forests, government land and those belonging to the satras must continue. If any Indian citizen is landless, they deserve to be given land as per the existing norms. Also if there is any Indian citizen who became landless due to flood and erosion, they should be given land in the same district," AASU president Utpal Sarma said after a meeting of North East Students' Organisation (NESO) in Guwahati.
The stand by the influential union is significant as the BJP government's ongoing eviction drive targeting the Bengali-speaking Muslims have drawn criticism from the Opposition parties ahead of Assembly elections slated next year. Himanta Biswa-led government has evicted over 5,000 families in at least six such drives in Dhubri, Goalpara, Nalbari, Lakhimpur and Goalpara districts since June 16.
Seeks NRC, withdrawal of CAA
The student union also demanded that the problem of foreigners in Assam be solved by updating the NRC with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date, which was decided as per the Assam Accord of 1985. AASU had spearheaded the six-year-long Assam Agitation or anti-foreigners movement, which culminated into signing of the Assam Accord. "A flawless NRC must be prepared and those failing to make it to the updated list must be deleted from electoral rolls and be deported to Bangladesh," he said.
AASU advisor Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharjya said as all clauses of the Assam Accord have not been implemented yet, illegal migration through unfenced stretches of the border with Bangladesh continued. "Illegal migration must stop and constitutional safeguards to the indigenous people must be ensured as agreed in the Assam Accord."
The AASU president said a meeting of the NESO also demanded NRC across the Northeast and withdrawal of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) from the entire region. Following protest against the CAA, the Centre had amended it further to keep the states having Inner Line Permit (Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh) out of the purview of the CAA.
The Centre also introduced ILP in Manipur. Similarly, the areas under the Sixth Schedule, which covers 98 per cent area in Meghalaya, 76 per cent area in Tripura and eight districts in Assam, were also kept out of the CAA.
"We want that the entire Northeast must be exempted from the CAA. Assam accepted illegal migrants who had settled till March 1971. The Northeast can't take more burden of the illegal migrants, be it Hindus or Muslims." Sarma said.
Passed in 2019, the CAA allows non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan till December 2014 to get Indian citizenship. The Northeast roared in violent protest against the CAA.