Protest by Assamese against CAA in Pune cancelled at the last minute after police withdraw permission to hold it

The CAA, which was recently passed in the Parliament, has generated anger amongst the Assamese based in the city as they call the Act unconstitutional.

A protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), organised by Luit, the Assamese Society in Pune, outside the Fergusson College gate on Sunday at 4pm, was cancelled a day before the event after the Pune police withdrew its permission to stage it.

The protest was scheduled to take place outside the Fergusson College gate on Sunday at 4pm. (Milind Saurkar/HT Photo)

The CAA, which was recently passed in the Parliament, has generated anger amongst the Assamese based in the city as they call the Act unconstitutional.

“Given how the protests against CAA have turned out in other parts of the country, it could have caused a potential law and order situation in the city as well, if we had allowed the protest to take place. To avoid the situation, the permission was denied as till now, the city has not faced any violence due to CAA,” said senior police inspector Dipak Lagad of the Deccan police station.

Bidyut Saikia, who is the main organiser of the protest and movement in the city, said, “We had all the required permissions and letter from the Pune police for Sunday’s protest, but suddenly on Saturday night we were told that the protest should be stopped. When we contacted the police officials concerned, they told us that they were under pressure from ‘upper level officials’, to keep the law and order situation in place and hence, the permission was denied. We are now helpless as the police and government, both are trying to stop us from demonstrating against the Act, which is our constitutional right.”