14th Dec: Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) 2019 now Citizens Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 is growing stronger with each passing day, all around the nation and more so, in the northeastern states. Even though people in major cities like Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Shillong have been living under curfews that last more than twelve hours each day, it hasn’t stopped people from mobilising and staging protests in different corners of their respective states. Though civilians have reported ‘anti-social elements’ trying to jeopardize the collective ethos of people, the protests, where a large part of the civil society assemble on a day to day basis, have been principally nonviolent and averse to the idea of destruction of public property.
In Jorhat and Lakhimpur, All Assam Nationalist group in association with Assam Sahitya Sabha, lawyers’ association and the Artists’ Association will be meeting near their respective Deputy Commissioners’ offices, to talk about CAB/CAA and the way forward.
Under the leadership of acclaimed literary critic, Dr. Hiren Gohain, the Left Democratic Manch, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti and Assam Nagarik Manch is staging a protest in Guwahati today.
Dr. Gohain has also declared that he is fighting alongside the Citizenship Amendment Act Virodhi Manch in filing a petition against CAB/CAA in the Supreme Court.
Former chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi has also spoken about moving the Supreme Court. It is being said that the Ex- finance minister, P Chidambaram will be representing his petition.
In another shocking turn of events, Town Committee Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Sabua, hometown of the current CM of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal, have resigned in protest. Both of them are prominent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members. This news comes just a day after Assamese superstar Jatin Bora, who is also the chairman of the state’s Film Finance Development Corporation, resigned from the BJP.
Meanwhile, United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has declared to stage a massive protest against CAB/CAA 2019. We are getting reports that the leader of ULFA, Jiten Dutta has been put under house arrest and major security forces have been deployed to his hometown, Borbil. Earlier, Paresh Baruah, the chief of the banned outfit had appealed to the people of Assam to end violence and solve the issue in a “democratic manner”.