Nonagenarian calls for anti-CAA protest to rage on

nonagenarian Runidhar Deka

A witness of the Indian freedom struggle and Assam agitation, nonagenarian Runidhar Deka on Monday expressed his optimism in the people’s movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), reported the The Telegraph India.

As a teenager, Deka, now 91, used to go to almost every protest against the British and had met Mahatma Gandhi at Sualkuchi in 1946 and still follows his policy of truth and non-violence. The social activist and farmer from Nalbari district, now settled in Tinsukia reminisces, “I was mesmerized by the divine charm in his personality. It was he who encouraged the handloom tradition at Sualkuchi.”

Recalling the Independence struggle he said, “We got Independence after a long struggle and thought here ends our movement. We will see a new dawn of peace, prosperity and happiness. However, the next year, on January 30, 1948, Bapu was assassinated, that gave the message that divisive powers yet existed in the country.”

Speaking about how life comes a full circle he remembered how he was 50 when the Assam movement began. To ensure an infiltration-free Assam, he took parts in various processions with his children. Now after 34 years, he said that he was still holding the hands of the now grown-up children who are still facing the struggle against illegal foreigners.

Calling for a Satyagraha against the CAA, he said, “I have taken part in almost every anti-CAA movement in the district. I find hope in seeing the issue turn into a people’s movement. It is enough to defeat divisive powers. I believe India can still be the country Gandhiji and B.R. Ambedkar envisioned — having humanity, equality, love and brotherhood.”

“Those who believe in divisive ideology will be defeated and the Act will be withdrawn. An illegal foreigner is a foreigner, Hindu or Muslim. They must be detected and deported,” he added.

Deka said that the government was trying to divert the attention of the people from real issues of hunger, water, unemployment, education and health and instead bringing in laws to divide the country. He asserted, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal should understand that this was not the dream of Gandhi, Ambedkar, Rajendra Prasad and Jawaharlal Nehru.”

Assam has been boiling over the CAA and NRC for a long time now. It has faced the worst with the NRC and post the announcement of the CAA, the agitation to revoke it only got stronger. To take the protest to more number of people, artistes from Assam launched a website – www.assamagainstcaa.in and also created a Facebook and Twitter page so that information about the continued protests reaches throughout India.

Not only this, the Assam Pradesh Youth Congress also staged a ‘Jail Bharo’ agitation in Guwahati in protest against the CAA. In Assam, at least five people have lost their lives in the anti-CAA stir. Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) leader Akhil Gogoi and others have been remanded to judicial custody alleging violence during protests.

The communal CAA is facing heavy protests all over India. From Delhi to Kerala and Assam to Mumbai, people from all over the country are fighting tooth and nail to get the ruling regime to revoke the same.