GUWAHATI, Dec 22 - A day after the State cabinet cleared a string of welfare schemes for indigenous communities, the All Assam Students� Union (AASU) has said the decisions indicate that the government was aware of the threat the Citizenship (Amendment) Act poses to the State�s culture, language, economy, identity and land.
�While the indigenous communities deserve the schemes, it also indicate that the government is seized of the threat the Citizenship (Amendment) Act poses to the State. Thus, the government should immediately revoke the amended law,� AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath and general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said in a statement.
Critical of the timing of the State government announcements that came amidst the ongoing uproar over against the CAA, the AASU insisted that the measures cannot restrain the agitation and the people will continue to oppose the new law.
�Under no circumstances the people will approve the move to put more burden of infiltrators on the State. In fact, the people will carry forward the agitation now with more resolve,� they said.
The student body said that in a democracy the status of a language depends on the number of people who speak it. �Assamese and other indigenous languages are recognised now. However, if the number of infiltrators increases, the status of these languages would be on a shaky ground,� they said.
AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya said the recent decisions of the government to fill in 55,000 vacancies, provide an assistance of Rs 50,000 to 2,000 artistes and technicians, and the latest cabinet approvals apparently aimed at silencing the outcry against the CAA, but it will not succeed in its design.
�People will take what they deserve and continue the fight against the CAA as well. Every person in the State know the threat posed by the new law and so are out on the streets,� he added.
The AASU will stage sit-in demonstrations across the State from 11 am to 2 pm tomorrow. In Guwahati, the demonstrations will be held at Latasil playground.
