Cong to collect 50 lakh 'gamochas' with anti-CAA messages

Agamocha in your name with a message against CAA will find aplace at the grand memorial site to be built in Guwahati.

Following Rahul Gandhi's emphaticassertion that the Congress will not implement Citizenship(Amendment) Act if voted to power in Assam, the state unit ofthe party Wednesday urged cadres to collect 'Gamochas'(Assamese scarf) with messages against the Act.

The gamochas (traditional white and red woven cloth offeredas an honour in Assam) collected as part of the anti-CAAcampaign will be displayed at the martyrs memorial tocommemorate the protestors against the Act who sacrificedtheir lives that the party proposes to set up in Guwahati ifvoted to power in the upcoming assembly elections.

''I request all Assamese to share gamochas with a message onwhy you do not want the CAA in the state. You may sign thegamocha and send it to us through courier or hand it over toany party worker when they visit you,'' said party's manifestocommittee chairman Gaurav Gogoi at a meeting in Bihpuria.

The party's state unit president Ripun Bora said ''we haveour ears on the ground and expect that the party will get atleast 50 lakh gamochas from across the state and all of themwill be displayed at the upcoming memorial''.

After Rahul Gandhi's no CAA call, the Assam unit of theCongress is devising programmes to make the contentiouscitizenship law an important election issue.

Polls to 126-member Assam assembly are expected in March-April this year.

The legislation had generated strong protests in Assam andelsewhere.

Five persons were killed in police firing in the state inDecember 2019 during violent protests against the Act thatseeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim religiousminorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Addressing his firt public rally in the poll-bound Assam atSivasagar on Sunday, Gandhi had declared that his party willprotect every principle of the Assam Accord and will neverimplement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act if voted to power inthe state.

Gandhi and other leaders were seen wearing 'gamocha' wheresymbolically the CAA word was crossed, giving a messageagainst the controversial law.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that issues ofCitizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens(NRC) and unemployment are no more poll issues in the state.

But, the Congress which has formed a Grand Alliance withAIUDF and four other parties against the BJP for the statepolls, has signalled that it would rake up the CAA issueprominently in the Assam assembly elections.

PCC chief Bora said that CAA shall be rooted out and thesacrifices made for saving ''Assamese pride'' will beimmortalised.

The Congress Legislature party leader in the assemblyDebabrata Saikia said that the dark days of BJPs oppressionof Assamese people are about to end and ''we will make surethat CAA is not implemented in Assam''.

The chairman of the Congress campaign committee PradyutBordoloi said that people of the state will not forget thebruise that BJP has given to Assamese ethos through itsdivisive and communal politics.

''Assam, this is your tryst to become a part of history! Agamocha in your name with a message against CAA will find aplace at the grand memorial site to be built in Guwahati. Asrequested by Congress, hurry up & send your gamocha to AssamCongress office,'' Bordoloi tweeted.