Kolkata’s Assamese want CAA exemption for their state

KOLKATA: Members of the Assamese community in the city on Monday submitted a memorandum of demands pertaining to the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, to the director of movements and trade adviser, Asim Kumar Bhattacharya, at Assam House in Kolkata. The demands will be sent to CM of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal. The members also staged a silent demonstration, wearing black masks, against the Act on Russel Street.
“The CAA contradicts clause 5 of the Assam Accord and is unacceptable to the people of Assam in its current form.Legalizing a portion of the foreigners will not only violate the commitment of the accord, but will also spell doom for the identity of the indigenous people,” the memorandum read.
“Among our demands were the unconditional exemption of Assam from the purview of the CAA, honouring of Clause 6 of Assam Accord and inclusion of six tribes of Assam, Ahom, Chutia, Koch-Rajbongshi, Motok and Moran and tea tribes, in Article 366 (25) of the Constitution, thus giving them the status of scheduled tribes,” said Sanjeev Baishya, who took part in the demonstration.
“It’s high time that the government took strong action to safeguard the language, ethnic culture and identity of the indigenous people according to the Assam Accord of 1985,” said one of the signatories Annwesha Roy, who is originally from Dibrugarh.
Bhattacharya said, “We will send the memorandum to the chief minister soon.” A copy of the memorandum will also be sent to the high-level committee to implement Clause 6 of the 1985 Assam Accord under Justice Biplab Kumar Sarma.