Withdrawal of agricultural laws may fuel anti-CAA protests

Ground Report | New Delhi: Anti-CAA protests in Assam; After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of withdrawing three agricultural laws, the debate has started once again regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Anti-CAA protests in Assam

According to 'The Hindu', many factions have again risen against the CAA in Assam and are planning a demonstration on 12 December. Under the CAA, there is a provision to give citizenship to non-Muslims coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, who have left these countries by 31 December 2014.

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Some organizations have decided to agitate again against the CAA, in which at least five people were killed in police firing in December 2019.

Social activist-turned-MLA Akhil Gogoi's All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and a political party Asom Jatiya Parishad will also participate in these demonstrations.

AASU advisor Samujjal K. Bhattacharya said the persistence of the farmers towards the protest is a lesson for those who are protesting against the CAA, which has been stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On November 20, he told reporters, "We would definitely like the CAA to be abolished by the central government as it is a serious threat to the identity of our local communities in the North East besides being against the Constitution."

Praising the farmers of North India, Gogoi has appealed to all the organizations to start a movement together against the CAA.

communal politics

The Coordination Committee against CAA was formed in 2019, which has organized a demonstration on 12 December to commemorate the completion of two years of the movement against CAA.

It is not only groups from Assam who are pleading for the withdrawal of CAA. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and Amroha MP Danish Ali have also made the same demand.

Speaking on these demands, Union Minorities Minister Mukhtar Abbasi Naqvi has said that 'communal politics' has started again.

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At a wedding ceremony in Rampur, he said that the purpose of this law is only to give citizenship to persecuted minorities coming from neighboring countries and not to snatch citizenship from Indians.

Responding to such demands, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi termed these calls as "communal politics" resuming on the issue. Speaking at a mass marriage event in Rampur, the minister said that the Act has nothing to do with removing citizenship from Indians and is about granting citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighboring countries.

“Someone says CAA should be repealed and Article 370 should be reinstated. These people are well aware that CAA is not about taking away citizenship but granting citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, and other persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh,” Mr Naqvi said.

"With the abrogation of Article 370, over 370 problems in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been resolved and people have been brought into the mainstream of development and progress," the minister said.

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