Guwahati: With the Centre Tuesday approving Indian citizenship for a 50-year-old resident of Silchar in Assam’s Cachar district under the Citizenship Amendment Rules 2024, a war of words has ensued between CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and the the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU).
As news of the Sylhet-born Bangladeshi being granted Indian citizenship by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reached Assam Wednesday, AASU reiterated its rallying cry — “CAA aami namanu” (we will not accept CAA).
His lawyer had told the media that the Silchar applicant goes by the surname Das, and had applied for Indian citizenship on 1 April this year through the CAA online portal. Das along with his wife, two sons and siblings resides in Silchar. He has now been instructed to collect his citizenship certificate from the Directorate of Census Operations, Assam.
Terming the development “unfortunate” and an “act of betrayal”, AASU president Utpal Sarma told ThePrint Thursday that it (grant of citizenship to Das) killed the spirit of the Assam Accord, signed 39 years ago on 15 August.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said the previous day that as against AASU’s claim that “20 lakh Bangladeshis” would become Indian citizens under CAA, “only one has got citizenship”.
“They (AASU leaders) said lakhs are waiting in trucks at the border to get citizenship. Aren’t they ashamed? Didn’t the blood of five martyrs of the anti-CAA movement humble them yet?” he asked.
The Assam CM also declared that the day AASU holds a commemoration ceremony for ‘anti-CAA martyrs’, the state will observe a “Pravanchana (betrayal) divas” to show how young people were provoked to revolt, and how “a well-functioning government was made to become restless”.
“They should ask for forgiveness,” he said, while also criticising AASU as an organisation that “lacks scientific vision”.
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‘Not about numbers, but about principle,’: AASU chief
In a statement released Wednesday after a formal ceremony marking the Assam Accord entering its 40th year, AASU leader Utpal Sarma said the chief minister along with his predecessor Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi belittled the sacrifice of 860 martyrs of the Assam Movement (1979-85).
The movement sought the detection of illegal immigrants, their deletion from voters’ list and subsequent deportation to Bangladesh.
“CM said only one person (from Bangladesh) got citizenship. For one, you killed five? And why has there been no investigation into who killed them? Time and again, he insults the martyrs. If it’s a minuscule number, why not take these people to Gujarat? Why Assam? We have already accepted the burden of those who came here 53 years ago,” said the AASU leader.
The Silchar applicant had reportedly entered India on 5 June, 1988.
Signed between the Centre, leaders of AASU and the regional political party, All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad, the Assam Accord promised that all immigrants who arrived in the state after 1965 would be disenfranchised, and all those who settled in Assam after 1971 would be deported. The date of 25 March 1971 was accepted as the cut-off date for the identification of “foreigners”.
The signing of this accord officially marked the end of the six-year Assam Movement that started in 1979.
Criticising Himanta Biswa Sarma and calling him the “brand ambassador of betrayals for Assam”, AASU president Utpal Sarma told ThePrint: “It’s not about numbers, but about principle, decisions. Why will we take even one more illegal immigrant that entered the state after 1971? The day they (the government) decided to grant citizenship to those entering Assam from Bangladesh from 1971-2014 is actually the day of betrayal.”
“He (Himanta Biswa) has repeatedly betrayed Assam. But the indigenous people of the state and the rest of Northeast, along with the AASU will celebrate martyr’s day to commemorate the sacrifice of the five persons who died during the anti-CAA movement,” he added.
Questioning the inability of the government to implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord that deals with legislative and administrative safeguards promised by the Centre to protect Assamese cultural, social and linguistic identity, and heritage, the AASU president said that Himanta Biswa Sarma had the longest tenure as a political leader to implement it — from his participation in student politics supporting AASU’s Assamese nationalism to joining the Congress, and later the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“He (Himanta Biswa Sarma) takes pride in saying he took part in the Assam Movement as a school student. He has been a member of the AASU, the Congress, and the BJP — if anyone had the longest opportunity to do something about the Assam Accord, it was him. He now says some districts look like Bangladesh, and there are demographic changes in Assam. The AASU said it long back,” said the AASU president.
Adding, “The day he (Himanta Biswa Sarma) changed his political colour by leaving Congress to join BJP should be celebrated as ‘Pravanchana Divas’.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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