CAA again on horizon, Assam Opposition prepares to raise it as poll issue, CM Sarma says go to SC

The first to hit back from the other side was DGP G P Singh. Without specifically mentioning the Opposition’s call for a protest, Singh posted on X: “… with the GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) of Assam pegged at Rs 5,65,401 crore, loss from a day’s bandh would be approximately Rs 1,643 crore recoverable from those who call for such a bandh in accordance with para 35(9) of the aforementioned order of the Hon’ble Gauhati High Court order.”

His reference was to a 2019 Gauhati High Court order on bandhs.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, meanwhile, asserting that there was no relevance of any protest against CAA at this point, said all those opposed to the law may approach the Supreme Court for revoking it.

Addressing a press conference, Sarma said Parliament, which had passed the law, is “not supreme” as the apex court is above it and can terminate any legislation enacted like what it did to the electoral bonds.

The 16 Opposition parties which called on Governor Gulab Chand Kataria are part of the ‘United Opposition Forum Assam’ – comprising state units of the national parties as well as the regional parties opposed to the BJP and its allies.

In their memorandum to the President, they stated that the CAA had been passed by Parliament in 2019 “ignoring the sentiment of the people of Assam”.

“Now the Hon’ble Union Home Minister very recently declared that the CAA is going to be implemented in Assam before the upcoming Lok Sabha election. As this Act is not only unconstitutional but also it is going to nullify the Historic Assam Accord of 1985 by putting in danger the History, Culture, Social Fabric, Economy and the very identity of the Assamese people. Therefore, we the Opposition Political Parties urge you to intervene in this most sensitive matter and direct the Government of India to desist from its decision to implement the CAA in Assam and also to repeal this unconstitutional and anti-national Act,” they stated.

If their appeal was ignored, the Opposition forum said, they and the people of Assam “will have no alternative” but to launch a mass movement.

Under the Assam Accord, which was a culmination of a six-year-long agitation, a cut-off date of 1971 (the Bangladesh War) was set for recognising those who had entered the state without proper papers after that as illegal immigrants. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) compiled in the state – the only one to have done it so far – also had the same cut-off as the basis.

However, under the CAA provisions, the Narendra Modi government eased the process of citizenship for illegal immigrants belonging to minority communities in neighbouring countries to have entered India with a cut-off date of December 31, 2014.

Apart from Assam, other parts of the country too had seen protests against the CAA after it was passed, with many calling it an unconstitutional provision for effectively leaving out only Muslims from its provisions.

In Assam, where the agitation against the CAA began when it was still a Bill under the consideration of the previous Modi government, the December 2019 protests had left at least five dead.

Assam Congress chief and United Opposition Forum head Bhupen Borah told The Indian Express that they remain firmly opposed to the Act as a “denial” of the Assam Accord.

“We have already taken the burden of lakhs of ‘foreigners’, it is a fact… This is not a political issue, it is an issue of the people, students, youth and the future of Assam. We have taken up the issue with the Governor because Amit Shah has announced that the CAA will be implemented soon. We were silent for a long time, but we want the government to know that we will not allow this. Today, we will also write to the PM seeking an appointment to discuss the issue. If they don’t respond favourably, we don’t have any option but to go in for an agitation,”

Lurinjyoti Gogoi, who heads the Asom Jatiya Parishad, a regional party born from the anti-CAA agitation which is a part of the United Opposition Forum, hit out at the DGP’s warning and said he is “being used as a BJP agent”.

Referring to the half holiday declared in the state on January 22, for the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, he said: “This was to further the BJP’s agenda. The DGP should show his mettle by recovering the Rs 821.5 crore lost because of this from the BJP.”

Stating that sentiments against the CAA were still strong in Assamese society, Gogoi said the Opposition would ensure that “the people’s opposition to the CAA becomes a vote against the BJP” in the coming elections.

Meanwhile, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and 30 other groups on Thursday announced a series of agitational programmes, including a 12-hour hunger strike in all districts on March 9 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state, in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.