GUWAHATI, Dec 15 - Assam never witnessed repressive measures like imposition of curfew in Guwahati city for five days and ban on mobile and broadband Internet services for the same period of time, which proves that the government is desperate to scuttle the democratic movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
This was the allegation of the All Assam Students� Union (AASU). The student body also asserted that the government would not be able to scuttle the movement against the CAA by force.
Talking to The Assam Tribune, AASU chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya said Assam never faced curfew for such long periods, while this was perhaps the first time that Internet services were snapped.
This proves that the government is scared to face the democratic movement by the people. There has been no incident of violence since the agitating organisations stopped any movement after sunset and the people vowed to agitate peacefully. But despite the fact that the situation has improved considerably, the government is scared of withdrawing the curfew and restore Internet services, he said.
Bhattacharya said repressive measures to scuttle the movement would never succeed. He pointed out that people violated curfew to come out to the streets in large numbers to participate in the democratic movement and the State and Central government should learn lessons from the success of the movement. He said the protest by the artistes on Sunday was a unique one and asserted that artistes of all ages would continue to participate in the movement. �In a democracy, no government can survive for a long time if it does not respect the sentiments of the people,� he warned.
The AASU chief adviser alleged that the Union Home Minister�s meetings with various organisations of Assam was a mere eyewash. The Union Cabinet passed the CAB within 12 hours of the Home Minister�s meeting with the AASU, which proves that the Centre held the meetings only to confuse the people, he added.
Reacting to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal�s statement that only a few Bangladeshi Hindus would get citizenship if the CAA is implemented, Bhattacharya said that if the number is small, such people should be taken by a train to Gujarat, which is the home state of the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister.
