Guwahati, January 15 (PTI): KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi Tuesday said he would meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, leaders from JD(U) and other parties to make the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill a national issue. "The Bill still remains an issue of Assam and the northeast. We need to make it a national issue. Though the Congress has opposed it in Parliament, but only their Assam-based MPs have opposed it," the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) leader, who is at the forefront of the anti-bill movement in Assam said.
Gogoi, along with leaders of the 70 organisations protesting the Bill, has begun a hunger strike from 2 pm Monday at Chachal area here. "In the next few days, we have decided to meet Rahul Gandhi, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, leaders from JD (U) and other political parties to convince them about the issue. The good thing is that they're already ideologically opposed to the bill," he said at the venue of his hunger strike.
A large section of people and organisations in the northeast have opposed the bill saying it will nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for deportation of illegal immigrants irrespective of religion. Even the governments of Meghalaya and Mizoram have strongly opposed the bill and adopted resolutions against it.
Sonowal failed to provide strong leadership’ Gogoi
Senior Congress leader and former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday described Sarbananda Sonowal as a "weak chief minister" who allegedly failed to provide a strong leadership when the state was going through trying times due to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
"Sarbananda Sonowal is a weak chief minister. If he does not take a strong stand on the bill today, it is certain that the future of Assam will be dark. I feel if the chief minister remains weak at this time, it is very unfortunate for the people of Assam," Gogoi, who preceded Sonowal as the chief minister, said. "Sonowal has given only a weak leadership and for that, I believe, (Finance Minister) Himanta Biswa Sarma is the one who is the most responsible. And due to this, he (Sarma) is riding roughshod over the hopes and aspirations of the people of Assam, instead of supporting them," he told reporters here.
Even after all this, if the chief minister did not wake up, people would realise that he was pretending not to understand their plight because of his self-interest, the Congress leader said, while taking part in the "Meji-burning" ritual of Bohagi or Magh Bihu, an agrarian festival of Assam.
