Guwahati 18 Aug : The anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests have returned to the northeastern region following two years with the influential North East Students’ Organizations (NESO) organizing protests in the capitals of the northeastern states on Wednesday in support of diverse demands, including the scrapping of the controversial law. In Assam In Assam, a protest gathering was organized by the All Assam Students Union (AASU) against the CAA.
The AASU is one of the members of the NESO which is an apex student body of eight organizations in the Northeastern region.NESO advisor as well as AASU president Samujjal Bhattacharya said that NESO held peaceful protests in all capitals of the states.
The protest also pertains to issues related to flooding and the massive influx of migrants, the total scrapping of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act which provides constitutional protections to indigenous communities, the imposing of Inner Line Permit (ILP) to protect indigenous population in all states in the northeast and the implementation of the clause 6 of the Assam Accord, 1985.
The anti CAA protests began in Assam and regions of West Bengal and other northeastern states in 2019 and continued until 2020, before the onset of Covid-19.
At least five people have been killed in protests against CAA in Assam which also saw large-scale violence and enforcement of curfews for several days.
In addition to the NESO, AASU, various tribal organizations as well as political parties like Congress as well as Left parties have been strongly against the CAA.
The CAA is seeking to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities -such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who have emigrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan until December 31 2014, after having faced religious persecution.
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