GUWAHATI, Jan 22 - Registering their protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, students in a number of colleges and universities on Wednesday abstained from their classes in different parts of Assam and the Northeast.
Following a call by the students unions of a number of universities of the region to boycott classes in protest against the CAA, the students staged sit-in demonstrations, and flashed placards against the Act on the day the Supreme Court was hearing the issue.
The examinations, however, were kept out of the purview of the protest call and were held peacefully as per schedule.
The students unions of Tezpur University, North Eastern Hill University, Gauhati University, Assam Women�s University, Assam Agricultural University, Dibrugarh University, Nagaland University, Rajiv Gandhi University and North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology had called for the boycott.
The Post Graduate Students� Union of Gauhati University boycotted classes and staged protest in the university campus. PGSU general secretary Moon Talukdar told The Assam Tribune that the students fraternity of Assam and the Northeast is united in opposing the Act.
�Though the apex court did not give a stay on the CAA, segregation of Assam and Tripura matters is a positive development for the State and the region. We have full faith on the Indian judiciary and we believe we will get justice,� he added.
Several colleges also joined the protest and classes in a number of colleges in Guwahati were affected. The Cotton University students also staged protest against the CAA and staged a hunger strike from 10 am to 5 pm on the university premises.
�Because of the examinations, we did not boycott the classes but staged the hunger strike and protest demonstration which was joined by a number of journalists, litterateurs and leading citizens,� said Pranjal Kalita, former general secretary of the Cotton University Students� Union.
