Assam MP and Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president, Ripun Bora staged a sit-in protest on December 6th, 2019 in front of Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament premises against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

Holding a placard, Bora appealed the government “not to murder the Assam Accord and National Register of Citizens (NRC) by implementing the Bill”.

Bora had earlier said that the Bill is a political tool of the Bharatiya Janata Party to polarise the society along religious lines. “The Bill is anti-constitutional as it violates the secular character of the Constitution and its Preamble and the historic Assam Accord,” Bora had earlier said.

The contentious Bill was cleared by the Cabinet on December 4th, 2019. It is likely to be tabled in the Lok Sabha on December 9th, 2019 and will be taken up for discussion on December 10th, 2019.

The Bill seeks to give citizenship to all non-Muslim immigrants facing persecution in the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

On the other hand, the Assam government has rejected the present NRC wanting it to be part of a national NRC. Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the NRC will be implemented nationwide and BJP-led government in the Centre would expel all the infiltrators before the next Lok Sabha polls, scheduled in 2024.

Continuing with their opposition to the Bill, several organisations and opposition parties in Assam staged protests on December 6th, 2019.

Photo: Time8