Three Asom Gana Parishad leaders resigned as state ministers over the ongoing controversy on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill after they tendered their resignations to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananada Sonowal.
“We fought against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 till the last moment. However, after meeting Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday, we were convinced the BJP is going to pass the Bill in the Lok Sabha. We met the Chief Minister and tendered our resignations,” AGP president Atul Bora was quoted by news agency IANS as saying after coming out of Sonowal’s office at Dispur.
The three AGP Ministers including AGP President and Agricultural Minister Atul Bora, Water Resources Minister Keshab Mahanta and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Phani Bhushan Choudhury met the Chief Minister in a meeting that lasted about 25 minutes.
Assam continued to be on the boil over the Citizenship Bill following a state wide shutdown on Tuesday. Various student bodies came out on the streeta once again on Wednesday to oppose the Centre’s move.
In Guwahati, Akhil Gogoi’s Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) demonstrated outside the state secretariat against the BJP government. In Biswanath Chairali district, students burnt tyres and blocked roads. In Golaghat too, angry protesters burnt the effigy of a local BJP MLA.
The protests, led by the influential All Assam Students Union (AASU) has once again brought to the fore, the issue of Axomiya identity.
“The imposition of the citizenship amendment bill 2016 which dilute the Assam accord. We want to tell the people and the central government of the country that the North East is not the dumping ground for illegal Bangladeshis. If the central government forces us to live like a second class citizen we will not tolerate that,” AASU leader Samujjal Bhattacharyahas told India Today.
