On January 23 and 24 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah addressed at least three rallies in Assam, but none of them spoke any word on the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens.
Amit Shah in his two rallies claimed that the BJP government in Assam, with the help of the Centre, got rid of flood and put a stop on the menace of infiltration. He teasingly asked can the Congress and Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front stop the Bangladeshi infiltrators from coming into India?
The visit of the two top BJP leaders to Assam is being interpreted as the launch of the election campaign in the state. But at the same time it gave the All Assam Students Union an opportunity to re-launch the movement against the CAA. The outfit had first launched the agitation in December 2019 just after the enactment of CAA. However, after the widespread violence and killing of several people the agitation lost the momentum.
On Sunday the AASU burnt the copies of CAA across the state. On the eve of PM Modi’s trip to Sibsagar on Jan 23 the AASU gave a call of Tezpur bandh and also organised protest demonstration.
It would be too early to say whether the AASU would really succeed in keeping up the momentum this time or not.
It needs to be mentioned that it was the AASU which had launched the Assam movement against the infiltrators in 1980s.
The movement was called off only after the Assam Accord was signed between the then PM Rajiv Gandhi and AASU on August 15, 1985.
The AASU leaders than formed Asom Gana Parishad and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta became the chief minister. It is other thing that the AGP is now in alliance with the BJP and is planning to fight jointly.However, there is a faction which wants the party to contest separately. On the other hand, AASU accuses the BJP of not fulfilling the promise made before the 2014, 2016 and 2019 elections.
