Anti-CAA Protests Erupt In Assam After MHA Notification

No sooner did the news spread about the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notifying the Citizenship (Amendment) Act – CAA – in Assam on Monday, March 11, protests erupted at several university campuses, including the Cotton University in Guwahati and the Dibrugarh University. According to news reports, students came out in dozens, shouting slogans to protest against the implementation of the CAA across the non-Sixth Scheduled areas of Assam.

Student bodies like the All Assam Students Union (AASU) also came out on the streets in different parts of the state and burnt copies of the Act.

AASU, which has been at the forefront of the anti-foreigner agitation since the 1980s which ended with the Assam Accord, announced a bandh in the state.

AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya told reporters, “The CAA is not acceptable to us. The BJP government has today delivered the biggest blow to the Assamese people, our identity, and our culture. Our protest will continue.”

The CAA nullifies the citizenship cut-off date of March 1971 as per the Accord. As per the Act, a Bangladeshi Hindu who had entered the state till 2019 is eligible for citizenship and can settle permanently in the north-eastern state. The two political parties which were born of the movement against the legislation – the Raijor Dal and the Asam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) –  announced a ‘hartal’ and urged the Assamese people to come out of their homes to register protest.

AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi called March 11 “a black day for Assam” and condemned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments both at the state and the Centre for not heeding the Assamese people’s opposition to implementation of the the Act in the state.

“This Act will crush the identity, land and cultural rights of the community,” Gogoi said on social media platform X (previously called Twitter). Accusing the BJP of seeking the votes of the Assamese community to protect their rights but ending up giving it the biggest blow, he said, “BJP’s leaders from Assam like Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma failed to convince their central government to keep Assam out of the CAA … it is a black day for Assam … I urge people to get ready to fight this Act.”