AASU accuses Modi, Shah and Sonowal of misleading people

All Assam Students Union(AASU) Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal of misleading people that their identity, language and land are secure though Bangladeshis are being settled here through the contentious legislation.

AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya speaking at an anti-CAA women's rally here claimed that the three leaders are misleading the people of Assam "with their unique formula of assuring to protect the indigenous people and at the same time bring in Bangladeshis here through the CAA". "We don't understand their (BJP's) peculiar formula. On the one hand, they say the language, identity and land of the Assamese people are secure, on the other hand, they will bring in Bangladeshis here through the CAA threatening the very existence of the indigenous people", he said.

AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath said the Modi government is misleading and creating confusion among the people to keep those Bangladeshis who entered the state till December 2014 using the CAA when the Assam Accord of 1985 said that all those who came in after Bangladesh independence on March 26, 1971, will have to leave. "Through the Assam Accord, we have on behalf of the country already taken the burden of illegal foreigners on our small state. Because of CAA now, we cannot take the additional burden till December 2014", he added. "We have given the illegal migrants all facilities in Assam so far, but we cannot allow them to contest elections in our state," he said.

Bhattacharya referred to Sonowal claiming that only a negligible number of refugees from Bangladesh in Assam will be benefited by the amended Citizenship Act and said, "If the number is negligible then let him (Sonowal) tell Modi and Shah to take them from Assam and settle them in Gujarat. Being a small number, those people can be taken in one train only from Guwahati railway station". On the different number of illegal Bangladeshis here and in the country provided by the government, he said Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's figure is five lakh in Assam when former Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta had informed Parliament in 2004 that one crore migrants were in the country. The union minister of state for home Jaiprakash Jaiswal had said the figure was 1.2 crore.

AASU general secretary Luringjyoti Gogoi addressing the rally claimed that the Modi government has brought the Citizenship Amendment Act with a "communal agenda". "The Act is disastrous as the settlement of a large number of Bangladeshis in Assam will change the demographic pattern here affecting the existence of Assamese people, besides wiping out our Assamese language with Bengali. The Bangladeshis will encroach our land, take away our jobs and political right," he said, adding "We will not accept even one more Bangladeshi - either Hindu or Muslim in Assam".