Tyres were being burned to protest against Citizenship Amendment Bill at Bengenakhowa Chariali, Golaghat (12 December 2019; 4:27pm).
By Mithu Das January 03, 2020
AASU and other student bodies started protesting against Citizenship Amendment Bill since it was tabled in the Union Cabinet meeting. The Bill, they said, doesn't meet Assam Accord.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019. Assam bandh was continuing for the third consecutive day in my hometown Golaghat. At around 10:30 in the morning, I was riding my bicycle on G. F. Road, heading towards the town. The shops were closed and the roads were empty, and few locales had gathered on the road, standing in front of the closed shops or sitting nearby.
The bandh was declared all over Assam by students' bodies and various political parties to protest against Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 (CAB). The protest got stronger after the ruling party—Bharatiya Janata Party—had passed the bill in the Loka Sabha on Monday. However, All Assam Students' Union (AASU) had been protesting against the bill since it was tabled in the Union Cabinet meeting a week earlier. They say the bill doesn't meet Aasam Accord—which was signed between AASU and the Federal Government in 1985—which endorsed that Bangladeshi migrants who had entered Assam after 25 March 1971 should be identified and deported.
In Assam, citizens' name had been started registering at National Register of Citizens (NRC) in 2013. However, after the final draft of NRC was published, in August 2019, it was found that more than 1.9 million people had failed to produce proper documents for inclusion of their names at NRC. Now, AASU fears if CAB would be passed, then it would give illegal immigrants citizenship of Assam. Meanwhile, the United Nations expressed deep concern over the exclusion of these people from NRC. Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said that "any process that could leave large numbers of people without a nationality would be an enormous blow to global efforts to eradicate statelessness."
CAB 2019, which was amended from the Citizenship Act of 1955, defines that non-Muslim migrants who—after escaping religious prosecution from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan—entered India and were living till 30 December 2014 will be granted full citizenship. This definition of CAB, however, has blamed to be institutionalizing racism, as it refuses Muslims. Therefore, the protest, which was peacefully organised by AASU in Assam, soon spread other parts in India and became violent after the bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Wednessday. Since anti-CAB protest started, more than hundred protesters were killed by police in all over India.
As I was cycling through the main town, I saw anti-CAB protesters were burning tyres in road junctions and black smoke was rising in the sky. On my way back home I saw some fifty protesters were marching the street on their motorcycles, shouting slogans, "Joi Ai Asom" (Hail to Assam), "Ami CAB namano" (We won't follow CAB), "Bangladeshi go back", "Narendra Modi murdabad", "Amit Shah murdabad" "Sarbananda Sonowal murdabad". Seeing the protesters coming, two locales—who were standing near the road—hurriedly walked down the alley. I realised that the situation could be get worst if the bill had to be passed in the Rajya Sabha.
Coming back home, I started browsing the Internet to find the news of the debate on CAB that had been going on in the Rajya Sabha between BJP and the opposition party. Just after the dusk had fallen, a friend informed us that a large number of anti-CAB protesters were marching in the town with flaming torch in their hands.
At 6:45, I got a phone call from my sister. "Have you heard the news?" She asked me.
"What news?"
"They're going to shutdown the Internet at 7:00pm," she said.
My mother asked me what had happened, and I joked with her that Narendra Modi wanted us to feel like Kashmiris. My mother doesn't understand all about politics. What she knows about Narendra Modi is that he was a chaiwala who's suddenly become Prime Minister, that he is giving poor people money to build houses and toilets, that he is pious and he genuinely loves his mother. So she didn't say anything.
The Internet was shutdown at 7:00 in the evening. A few hours later—I learned about it the next day—CAB had been passed in the Rajya Sabha by 125 MPs (105 MPs had voted against it). At around 9:30, when we were taking dinner, the local administrator issued an announcement through loudspeaker that Golaghat town was placed under curfew from 10:00PM to 5:00AM.
The next morning (Thursday) I went to town to find some newspapers. But the shops were closed. Then, I went to Bus Stand complex where I saw a man was selling newspapers. I bought a local newspaper—which had just been arrived from Jorhat—and gave a quick glance at the headlines: A large image of a burning bus was printed on the cover. The caption below it read: Angry protesters has burned an empty city bus in Guwahati. Below the image was printed in big letters: Curfew imposed in Guwahati. Flag marched by army.
On Thursday, three protesters—two of them were minors—were shot dead in Guwahati (and two in Tripura) by police. After these brutal killings, the protest against CAB grew even more stronger. Crowds of people gathered on the streets and marched in large processions led by singers, artists, and students' leaders. The Chief Minister of Assam was fiercely criticized for using guns against unarmed protesters. It is still remain a mystery why Assam Police and Army did not use rubber bullets or tear gas to disperse the protesters.
Meanwhile, Assam bandh continued for the sixth consecutive day, and we were deeply feeling the brunt of it. We couldn't buy groceries or vegetables due to bandh. Although some shops were opened at evening, they charged higher prices for potatoes, onions, vegetables and eggs. Petrol and alcohol were being illegally sold at twice their prices. However, from Saturday the situation had slowly started getting normal, and within the next two days bus and train services were started. However, the mobile Internet service had not been restored, for which people couldn't pay their hospital or electric bills, check examination results or apply for job interview. The Internet service was restored on Friday (20th December) after petitions were filed at Guwahati High Court, thanks to lawyers.
On Thursday CAB became CAA or Citizenship Amendment Act after it had received approval from the President of India. Consequently, AASU and other organizations had to resort to bring cases against the Act in the apex court. The hearing of the cases will be opened on 22nd January 2020.
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