Protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill have intensified with rallies and marches being held in Assam as the Union Home Minister Amit Shah is all set to table the contentious Bill in the Parliament on December 9th, 2019.

Several civil organisations and students’ bodies have kicked-off their anti-Bill protests in Assam after the Union Cabinet cleared it on December 4th, 2019. The students of various colleges and universities of Assam have also joined the protests.

On December 9th, 2019, the students of the Gauhati University slit their hands and inked posters with blood opposing the Bill. The students of the GU slammed Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal for supporting the Bill.

“We will not accept the Bill,” said the students of GU.

The Bill that seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan escaping religious persecution there has triggered widespread protests in Assam.

In Assam, sit-in demonstrations, rallies and marches have been held over the past week, and ministers, MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led ruling coalition, which includes the Asom Gana Parishad, have been shown black flags and grilled by the anti-Bill supporters wherever they are finding them.

Sonowal on December 8th, 2019 faced massive protests twice during his scheduled programmes in Kaliabor and Guwahati. He was twice shown blag flags by the All Assam Students’ Union volunteers when he went to attend two separate events in the state.

Photo: @prakashadhikari