By Tanuj Dhar
Guwahati, Feb 12 (IANS) It’s been more than three years since the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was made into a law by the Parliament, yet the Home Ministry has not framed the rules for implementing this controversial legislation across the country. A process that should have been completed in six months has taken the Union Home Ministry a bit, too, long.
The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), an ardent critic of the CAA, alleges the government has been intentionally delaying the proceedings on this matter in the Supreme Court for political gains. The students’ body has been fighting a case in the country’s apex court, demanding to scrap the act.
Speaking to IANS, AASU’s Chief Adviser Samujjal Bhattacharya, said, “Our stand on this issue is absolutely clear. The CAA must go.”
The students’ body had led a fierce protest against the CAA just after it was introduced in the Parliament.
“We have been continuing our fight against CAA through both democratic and legal means. The legal battle we are fighting at the Supreme Court. Democratically, we have been always active among the people of Assam and northeast to make everybody understand that CAA is pretty much harmful to us,” Bhattacharya added.
He also made it clear that AASU will never change its stand on the controversial Act. The students’ body leader has also asked questions about the double standards while writing down the CAA.
“The states that have the provisions of inner line permits (ILP) like Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur were exempt from the CAA. If this act is not beneficial for these four states, how could it be for other tribal areas in the country,” AASU’s Chief Adviser asked.
The areas falling under the sixth schedule of the Constitution of India were exempted from this Act. Bhattacharya questions that too.
He said, “Most of the places in Meghalaya belong to the sixth schedule areas. Assam, too, has a few regions under this agreement where the CAA will not be applicable. Therefore, I may ask the same question to the Central government about including other regions within the CAA.”
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said the BJP government is committed to bring the CAA into force.
“It is part of the BJP’s commitment, it is part of our ideology. We will implement it,” Sarma added.
He rubbished the claim by the Opposition parties that the BJP has been using CAA as a tool for political gain.
When Bhattacharya was asked about the BJP’s strategy regarding the CAA, he replied, “We are an apolitical body and do not want to engage in votebank politics.”
–IANS
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