Citizenship Amendement Bill: Massive anti-NRC rally in Kolkata

A country cannot be run by fear of losing citizenship, say protesters

On a day Union Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (CAB) in Parliament, Kolkata witnessed a massive anti-NRC rally, organised by a leftist civil society platform, Joint Forum Against NRC (National Register of Citizens).

Cutting across party lines, thousands of people participated in the protest. Participants said “a country cannot be run by fear [of losing one’s citizenship].” Many left parties, other than CPI(M), participated in the rally, which was part of a month-long campaign against the Central government’s plans to pass and implement citizenship law.

Kanhaiya Kumar, member of the National Council of the Communist Party of India said fear and religious hype had been used earlier too but could not divide the country.

PTI adds:

Bandh affects life in parts of Assam

The 48-hour Assam bandh called by the All Moran Students’ Union (AMSU) in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and granting of Scheduled Tribe status to six communities affected life in several districts of the State on Monday, officials said.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which seeks to give Indian nationality to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan facing religious persecution there, was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on December 9.

Shops, markets and financial institutions kept their shutters down, while schools and colleges were closed in Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Majuli, Morigaon, Bongaigaon, Udalguri, Kokrajhar and Baksa.

The bandh evoked no impact in the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi and the hill districts of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao.

Private offices were closed in the bandh-hit areas and attendance in government offices was thin, they added.

In many places, protesters burnt tyres and blocked National Highways but the police swung into action and cleared the roads. Some state-run long distance buses plied with police escort, they said.

The police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse a group of agitators who clashed with police personnel in Dibrugarh and Guwahati while trying to stop movement of vehicles.

Foreign and domestic tourists in Kaziranga National Park and Jorhat were stranded due to the bandh with no public transport available for their travel to Guwahati to board flights and trains.

The protesters in many places also took out ‘funeral processions’ of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal for his alleged failure to oppose the CAB which, they claimed, will threaten the existence and language of the indigenous people.

Besides protesting against the CAB, the AMSU’s bandh was called to press for its demand for granting of Scheduled Tribe status to Moran and five other communities — Tai Ahom, Koch Rajbongshi, Chutia, Tea Tribes and Matak — of the State.

The North East Students Organisation (NESO), the apex body of all the student bodies of the region, has called an 11-hour Northeast bandh on Tuesday. Nagaland where the Hornbill Festival is going on, has been exempted from the purview of the shutdown.

Left-democratic organisations also called a 12-hour Assam bandh on December 10.