More than 70 organisations to stage protests against Modi over Citizenship Bill

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and 70 social organisations announced on Friday that they would show black flags and hold stir against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit in protest against the citizenship bill. Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) chief Akhil Gogoi, who is at the forefront of the protests against the controversial bill, said Modi's visit here on Saturday would be observed as a 'Black Day' across the state and members of 70 organisations would show black flags to him.

"The bill has been brought in to give citizenship to the Hindu Bengalis from Bangladesh and get their votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls", Gogoi said. The KMSS leader said the Bharatiya Janata Party's position in the country was not good and their strategy was to get maximum seats from West Bengal and the Northeast. That is why, he added, that the saffron party had taken the route of the citizenship bill.

Gogoi was among the three against whom sedition cases were registered by the Assam police for their remarks against the citizenship bill. Two others who faced sedition charges were Assamese litterateur Hiren Gohain and senior journalist Manjit Mahanta. The AASU burnt effigies of Modi in different parts of the state on Friday, said Samujjal Bhattacharya, the organisation's chief adviser.

Modi is visiting Assam for the first time after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8. The controversial bill seeks to provide citizenship after six years of residence in India to non-Muslims who had fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered the country before December 31, 2014. The legislation awaits clearance from the Rajya Sabha, where the National Democratic Alliance is short of majority.

Modi is scheduled to arrive here on Friday night and spend the night at the Raj Bhawan before leaving for Aruncahal Pradesh the next morning to inaugurate various projects. The prime minister will return to Guwahati in the afternoon and proceed to Amingaon in North Guwahati, where he will lay the foundation stone of the North East Gas Grid and the city gas distribution networks of Kamrup, Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts. He will also inaugurate the Hollong Modular Gas Processing Plant in Tinsukia.

Modi will also lay the foundation stone of a biorefinery in Numaligarh and a 729-km Barauni-Guwahati gas pipeline that will pass through Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim and Assam. The prime minister is also scheduled to address a rally in Amingaon, which falls under the Jalukbari assembly constituency of state Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

(With inputs from agencies.)