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Pune’s Assamese residents plan protest on Citizenship Act; express deep concerns
PUNE: Assamese residents of Pune expressed deep concern on Saturday with the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in both houses of parliament, and President
PUNE: Assamese residents of Pune expressed deep concern on Saturday with the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) in both houses of parliament, and President Ram Nath Kovind’s assent turning it into the Citizens (Amendment) Act, 2019.
ASOMI- The Cultural Essence, a registered Assamese association which represents all communities of Assam in Pune said at a press conference on Saturday that reception and apprehension towards this Act is very different in Assam from other states in the country. According to the organisation, there are 20,000 Assamese residing in Pune.
On December 15, ‘LUIT- The Assamese Society of Pune’ will protest against the Act at 4 pm outside the main gate of Fergusson College.
Office-bearers of ASOMI during a press conference at the Pune Shramik Patrakar Sangh on Saturday demanded that the central government must immediately pronounce measures to conserve linguistic and cultural identity of the people which could be threatened by a possible demographic change.
They said the government needs to speedily implement clause 6 of the Assam Accord which promised to protect the identity of the Assamese people.
According ASOMI office bearers, all districts of Assam should be brought under the sixth schedule of the constitution and the extra population that has migrated to the state should be distributed proportionally to all the states, so that Assam does not have to bear the burden and risk a shift in indigenous demography.
Advisor Col Tarun Borah ( retd ) warned that, implementation of Act will usher in a demographic change and all the indigenous communities of Assam will be wiped off the map.
“The violence during the protests was unleashed by vested interests and Assamese people will never indulge in such activities as they are peace-loving people who believe in protesting with democratic rights.It is only after the 1979 Assam Movement that the entire state is on the streets and demanding that the government should protect their identity and culture,” he said.
Bishmita Dutta, joint cultural secretary, ASOMI, demanded legal protection of Assamese land, language, culture and political rights which according to her, constituted a long-standing demand of the Assamese people.
Amongst the others who addressed the gathering were Samiron Phukan, president ASOMI; Mousumi Bora, Nripen Gogoi , finance secretary ASOMI and other officials of the organisation.
