Latest news with #AllAssamStudents'Union
NDTV
a day ago
- Politics
- NDTV
Assam Students Body Protests Against Government's Directive On Hindu Migrants
The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) staged statewide protests on Friday at district headquarters, strongly opposing the Assam government's reported directive to withdraw all citizenship-related cases against illegal Hindu migrants. The Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had denied media reports on Thursday that his government has asked officials of the foreigners tribunals to drop cases against members of six communities—Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, and Parsi—who entered the state before 2015, citing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). However, the CM's assurances have not cut ice with AASU, which has spearheaded anti-CAA protests in the state. In Guwahati, members of AASU's Kamrup Mahanagar district unit assembled in front of the Swahid Nyas, where they burned copies of the reported directive and shouted anti-government slogans. Addressing the media, AASU President Utpal Sarma said, "The Government of Assam has issued instructions to all Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police to withdraw citizenship-related cases against illegal Hindu migrants from Bangladesh. These directives are unacceptable." "AASU firmly opposes this move. As a mark of protest, we have burned copies of the directive at all district headquarters today. We reiterate our stand against the CAA and demand that the government withdraw this decision, which effectively protects illegal Hindu Bangladeshis in foreigners' tribunals," he said. Utpal Sarma also reiterated AASU's consistent demand for the full implementation of the Assam Accord. "Only those who entered Assam before March 24, 1971—regardless of religion—are eligible for Indian citizenship. Anyone who came after that, Hindu or Muslim, must be identified and expelled. That has always been our stand," Mr Sarma said. He concluded by announcing that protests would continue across the state until the government revokes the directive and upholds the constitutional and historical sanctity of the Assam Accord.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Aasu stir against govt directive on Hindu B'deshi immigrants
1 2 3 4 DIBRUGARH, AUG 8: Hundreds of All Assam Students' Union (AASU) members took to the streets of Dibrugarh on Friday in protest against the Assam government's directive to withdraw cases from Foreigners Tribunals against illegal Hindu Bangladeshi immigrants. The demonstration was spearheaded by AASU Dibrugarh District president Rupjyoti Borthakur and town unit president Tanuj Haloi, who led protesters through the city's main thoroughfares before converging at Chowkidingee. Participants wielded banners and raised voices against what they termed a betrayal of indigenous Assamese rights. The protesters also resorted to burning copies of the contentious directive. "We categorically reject this directive which is nothing less than a covert strategy to impose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) upon Assam. This is an inexcusable act against the people of Assam. If the CAA is deemed harmful for states operating under Inner Line Permit systems or Sixth Schedule provisions, what justification exists for imposing it upon Assam," AASU Dibrugarh District president Rupjyoti Borthakur said. The AASU emphasised the importance of adhering to the Assam Accord, which establishes March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for identifying and deporting illegal immigrants. "The government cannot pick and choose which illegal immigrants to shield based on their religion. There should be no religious criteria influencing decisions on illegality. Any individuals from Bangladesh, regardless of being Hindu or Muslim, who entered Assam after that date should be sent back. Assam is not a refuge for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh," AASU town unit president Tanuj Haloi said. (Ends) Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Raksha Bandhan wishes , messages and quotes !
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
On ‘suggestion' to drop Foreigners Tribunal cases against people from 6 communities, Assam CM Himanta clears the air
A 'suggestion' to 'drop all cases' in Assam's Foreigners Tribunals against 'Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian' people who entered India before the end of 2014, citing the Citizenship Amendment Act, was among the issues discussed in a high-level meeting of the state Home and Political Department last month. This suggestion, recorded in minutes of the meeting, has also been forwarded to DCs. This has triggered a firestorm in Assam, with the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) announcing a statewide protest on August 8, accusing the government of 'selectively protecting illegal immigrants based on religion'. However, a senior Home and Political Department official, who was among those who attended the meeting, told The Indian Express that the records of the meeting do not amount to directives to the Foreigners Tribunals and that no formal order to withdraw cases against members of these six religions has been issued by the state government. Asked about this while addressing reporters after a state cabinet meeting late Thursday night, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that there is 'no need' for the state cabinet to take any special decisions in this regard since protections are already extended to the specified communities under the CAA. 'The state government has not issued any direction except what is already in the CAA. The CAA itself provides security and protection to the people who entered India prior to 2014. That is the law. No special cabinet decision is required. We have taken two cabinet decisions for the Koch Rajbongshis and the Gorkha people, and the cases have been withdrawn. Beyond that, for people from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan who entered before 2014, the CAA itself provides protection. There is no need for the state government to bring any new decision on this.' On July 17, a meeting was presided over by the Additional Chief Secretary to the Home and Political Department, and attended by eight other senior officials from the Assam Police, the Home Department, and the Health and Family Welfare Department with the stated agenda of 'sensitising for the use of e-Sakshya portal, capacity building and ensuring effective implementation of BNS, BNSS and BSA'. The minutes of the meeting mention that issues related to the accommodation of Public Prosecutors as well as Foreigners Tribunals, with reference to the Citizenship Amendment Act, were also included as additional discussion points. The minutes said that DCs and SSPs of all districts are to conduct a review of 'all the Foreigners (Pakistani/ Bangladeshi/ Rohingya, etc.)' 'As per the amendments made to the Citizenship Act, the FTs are not supposed to pursue cases of foreigners belonging to the six specified communities (Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsi and Jain communities), who had entered Assam on or prior to 31.12.2014. It was suggested to drop all such cases. In this regard, the District Commissioners and Senior SPs should immediately convene a meeting with their respective FT members and also review the developments periodically and submit the action taken report to this department,' the minutes said. 'However, such foreigners should be encouraged and supported to apply for Indian citizenship as per provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act,' it goes on to say. Assam shares a long border with Bangladesh, and the question of 'illegal immigration' from the neighbouring country has long been a contentious issue. The state has different processes for declaring people who entered the state after March 24, 1971 — the cut-off date for citizenship as determined by the Assam Accord — as 'foreigners' and 'illegal immigrants'. Among these are trials by Foreigners Tribunals to determine whether suspected 'illegal immigrants' referred to them by the border police are Indian nationals or foreigners. Last July, the Home and Political Department had directed the border police not to directly refer cases of newly detected 'foreigners' from these six categories, who entered Assam before December 31, 2014, to FTs and instead advise them to apply for citizenship under the CAA. This did not have a bearing on the over 90,000 cases pending with the FTs and cases where people have been declared foreigners. The official who was present at the meeting claimed that the July meeting does not translate to an order for the withdrawal of cases against people from the six specific communities. 'If we are to take a decision on dropping cases, we will have to issue formal and clear-cut orders from Dispur. A discussion in a meeting on a matter like this is not actionable. In the past, the state government had taken decisions to withdraw all cases filed against people from the Gorkha and Koch Rajbongshi communities. In both these cases, clear-cut written orders were issued from the Home and Political Department in 2021 and in April this year, respectively. In this case, there has not been such an order. The only directions we formally issued in this matter are from last year, when we instructed the border police not to directly refer pre-2014 cases from the six specified communities to FTs,' said the official.
Scroll.in
3 days ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
All Assam Students' Union to protest dropping of foreigners tribunal cases against non-Muslims
The All Assam Students' Union on Thursday said that it will protest against the state government's decision to drop foreigners tribunals cases against non-Muslims who entered the state before 2015. The Assamese nationalist students' organisation also demanded the withdrawal of the Citizenship Amendment Act from Assam. Scroll was the first to report on Tuesday that Assam's Bharatiya Janata Party government, citing the amended citizenship Act, has asked district authorities and members of the foreigners tribunals to drop cases against persons from six communities – Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi – who entered the state on or before December 31, 2014. The state's home and political department had held a meeting on July 17 and discussed 'issues related to foreigners tribunal with reference to Citizenship Amendment Act' and the 'dropping off cases'. The meeting was held following a directive from Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. In its statement on Thursday, the All Assam Students' Union said that it opposed the government's order directing the withdrawal of the cases against 'illegal Hindu Bangladeshis' pending before the tribunals and demanded the cancellation of the decision that 'granted protection' to them. It added that copies of the order would be burnt by members of the organisation in every district headquarters on Friday. 'This directive that seeks to protect Bangladeshis must be repealed,' the statement said. 'There must be a permanent solution to the burning problem of illegal foreign nationals in Assam on the basis of the Assam Accord,' it added. 'Therefore, it is necessary to expel all illegal Bangladeshis, Hindu and Muslim, who came after 1971 on the basis of the Assam Accord.' Assam was not a 'pasture' for undocumented Bangladeshi migrants, the group said, adding that the Union government was 'unfairly' imposing the Citizenship Amendment Act on the state. The Citizenship Amendment Act is aimed to provide a fast track to citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and have entered the country by December 31, 2014. It was passed by Parliament in December 2019. The Union government notified the rules under the Act in March 2024. The foreigners tribunals in Assam are quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship based on lineage and a 1971 cut-off date. They rely primarily on documents submitted by persons to establish their family's residency in Assam or India before 1971. The tribunals have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and declaring people foreigners on the basis of minor spelling mistakes, a lack of documents or lapses in memory. Of the 1.6 lakh persons declared foreigners so far, more than 69,500 are Hindus. Critics contend that the Citizenship Amendment Act undermines the 1985 Assam Accord between the Union government and the leaders of the Assam Movement, which was launched in 1979 to identify and deport undocumented immigrants. The accord stipulates that anyone who entered Assam after the midnight of March 24, 1971, be identified and deported. Assamese nationalist view 'illegal migrants', irrespective of their religion, as a threat to the state's culture and resources. On Thursday, the All Assam Students' Union also noted that the Union government had ensured that '98% of Meghalaya, 70% of Tripura and eight districts, including BTR [Bodoland Territorial Region] and hill districts, of Assam' did not come under the purview of the Citizenship Amendment Act. 'This means that CAA does not apply in most of the states and places in the North East,' the statement said. 'There are 27 out of 35 districts in Assam where the CAA is in force. Assam is the worst affected state in the North East.' Claiming that the Act was harmful and 'anti-indigenous', the All Assam Students' Union said that Assam must be completely excluded from its scope. 70,000 designated foreigners may become citizens, says Congress Congress leader Debabrata Saikia said on Thursday that he had sent a letter to several organisations in the state, urging them to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act and to form public opinion against it. The leader of the Opposition in the Assembly said that Act violated the Assam Accord. 'The BJP government is presently formulating plans to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, which contravenes the Assam Accord, and to grant citizenship to foreigners,' Saikia said. The chief minister has already issued directions on the withdrawal of the cases against foreign nationals pending in the tribunals on the basis of their religion, Saikia added. 'Should this order be implemented, approximately half a million foreign nationals within our state, currently excluded by the Assam Accord, would become eligible for Indian citizenship,' he claimed. About 70,000 persons previously designated as foreigners by the tribunals may also become Indian citizens, the Congress leader added. 'This decision of the government will not only violate the Assam Accord but also have a negative impact on the economic situation and limited natural resources of our state,' Saikia said, adding that the government had not refuted reports about its directive. The Citizenship Amendment Act had sparked massive protests in Assam and several other parts of the country in 2019 and 2020. However, the amended law was welcomed by Assam's Bengali Hindus. In August 2019, Assam published a National Register of Citizens with the aim of separating Indian citizens from undocumented immigrants living in the state. More than 19 lakh persons, or 5.7% of the applicants, were left out of the final list. In March 2024, Sarma said five lakh Bengali Hindus, two lakh Assamese Hindu groups Koch-Rajbongshi, Das, Kalita and Sarma (Assamese), and 1.5 lakh Gorkhas had been left out of the National Register of Citizens. The chief minister had also said that seven lakh Muslims are among the 19 lakh persons excluded from the register. The ruling BJP had claimed that Hindus excluded from the register in Assam would be able to gain citizenship under the amended law. There have been fears that Muslims would be the only ones who stand to lose their citizenship in such an exercise.
Time of India
24-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Eviction drive fuels exodus of Uriamghat families to ancestral lands
Guwahati: In the wake of Assam's aggressive eviction operations targeting encroachers in Rengma Reserve Forest, a significant exodus of goods-laden vehicles is underway from Uriamghat, signalling one of the state's largest eviction drives. Authorities in Nagaland have issued warnings to districts about potential illegal migrant movements as families, served with eviction notices, depart for ancestral homes in central Assam's Nagaon and Morigaon districts. The relocation has sparked concerns among residents of Nagaon and Morigaon about potential land disputes, particularly with the influx of numerous Muslim families, some of East Pakistan/Bangladesh origin. Over 70% of the families who received eviction notices have vacated the area, where many had settled since the 1970s, raising fears they might occupy other government or forest lands if relatives refuse to accommodate them. "We are keeping a watch on the movement of people from Uriamghat to Nagaon," said Nagaon district commissioner Devashish Sharma. "Many families coming into our district have their own lands in Nagaon. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This Could Be the Best Time to Trade Gold in 5 Years IC Markets Learn More Undo For those who have lands in Nagaon district, it has also been verified where these people are going to resettle. However, all land revenue staff have been put on alert to report immediately if people who do not have roots in that area in Nagaon district enter," he added. Govt sources reveal most families are relocating to minority-populated areas like Juria in Nagaon and Dhing in Morigaon. The question remains whether relatives will accept these families on their ancestral lands after their extended stay in Uriamghat. Officials confirm that families or their ancestors listed on land deeds will receive their share, but complications arise as many families previously sold their land portions to relatives who may be unwilling to return these shares from already limited plots. Simanta Bora, Nagaon district unit president of the All Assam Students' Union, said, "There have been movements of vehicles and trucks from Uriamghat to Nagaon and Morigaon in the last few days. If they resettle in their own lands, we do not have any problem. But in the name of resettlements, these families should not be allowed to encroach govt or forest lands again. We are monitoring the situation." Despite public declarations from some Muslim-populated areas refusing to accept encroachers, those relocating remain determined to settle in their ancestral lands. "Our people are not Bangladeshis but Indian citizens. That's why we are going to Nagaon and Morigaon in the heart of Assam. We hope our relatives will understand our plight," said Abdul Hanif of Juria. He added, "When we went there to Uriamghat for farming and save Assam lands from encroachment attempts by Nagas, the Assam govt did not drive us out from there. We lived there for five decades, but today destiny has forced us to resettle in our own lands. We accept it."
