Ahead of Modi visit, AASU takes out torchlight processions in Assam to protest against CAA

The All Assam Students Union(AASU) on Friday took out torchlight processions pressing fortheir demands, including scrapping of the CitizenshipAmendment Act, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi andUnion Home Minister Amit Shah set foot in the state.

The AASU is also in favour of repealing theEnvironmental Impact Assessment Act, and implementation of thereport of the Committee on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, whichsafeguards constitutional rights of indigenous people.

In Guwahati, police barricaded the AASU headquarters'Swahid Bhawan' and did not allow the protesters to move outwith torchlights, but the students' body staged their protestbehind the barriers.

AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya and presidentDipanka Kumar Nath were seen engaged in a heated argument withpolice officers, who said the rally would be allowed if theyhanded over the torchlights.

''We refuse to hand over the torchlights as this was apart of our protest programme and we will not change it. We,time and again, assured the authorities that our agitationwill be non-violent, democratic and peaceful but the BJPgovernment is scared as they failed the people of Assam,''Bhattacharya said.

He was particularly critical of Chief MinisterSarbananda Sonowal, who was the president of the AASU whenBhattacharya was its general secretary, for sending police toquell the protest.

''It was from Swahid Bhawan that Sonowal reached thechief minister's office and now he is sending force to stopdemocratic and peaceful protests. This is shameful and wecondemn this,'' he said.

''AASU had taken out torchlight processions since theAssam movement against foreigners and no dispensation stoppedit. This is the first government to take such a step, and thisproves that the CM is a coward and his government is afraid ofnon-violent and democratic protest,'' Bhattacharya said.

The protesters shouted slogans against Modi, Shah andSonowal and demanded that the CAA and EIA be repealed alongwith the implementation of the report of the Clause SixCommittee.

The PM had assured AASU that the recommendations ofthe committee will be implemented to the ''last comma and fullstop, but it will be nearly a year now that the report wassubmitted, and no action has been taken so far'', he alleged.

''The constitutional safeguard under Clause 6 of AssamAccord is our democratic right and not any charity by theprime minister or the home minister. Our protests willcontinue till these demands are fulfilled,'' the AASU leaderasserted.

PM Modi will be arriving in Sivasagar district onSaturday to launch a special programme of the state governmentto distribute land 'patta' or allotment certificates to overone lakh landless indigenous people. Shah is scheduled tovisit the state on Sunday.

Meanwhile, four AASU members were injured in a clashwith the police who stopped them from taking out thetorchlight procession at Tezpur, following which the districtunit of the students organisation called for a 12-hourSonitpur Bandh, leaders of the students' body said.

AASU will stage protests in all district and sub-divisional headquarters by covering their faces with blackcloth during Modis visit on Saturday, and observe 'Black Day'on January 24 by burning copies of the CAA.