The Supreme Court of India.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Guwahati: The Supreme Court's judgment upholding constitutional validity of the Section 6A of the Citizenship Act prompted several organisations in Assam to reiterate their demand for scrapping the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019 as the latter extended the cut-off-date for Indian citizenship to 2014.
The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) said that SC's judgement cleared the decks for implementation of the Assam Accord and all foreigners must be detected with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date, as agreed in the accord. The AASU had led the six-year-long anti-foreigner movement (1979-1985), following which the accord was signed in 1985.
"The cut-off-date of March 24, 1971 agreed in the Assam Accord got legal validity through Section 6A of the Citizenship Act. Since the Supreme Court today upheld the constitutional validity of the Section 6A, it is now up to the Centre and the state government to implement all clauses of the Assam Accord and solve the vexed foreigner problem in Assam. It is now almost 40-years that the accord remained unimplemented," chief advisor of AASU, samujjal Kumar Bhattacharjya, told reporters soon after the SC verdict.
The AASU have been agitating for scrapping the CAA arguing that it violates the Assam Accord and even called it an unconstitutional move of the Narendra Modi-led government as it also seeks to offer citizenship on religious consideration. The Assam Accord sought to detect all post-1971 migrants, irrespective of religion, but the CAA offered citizenship to the "persecuted" non-Muslim migrants till December 2014. The Centre started implementing the CAA just before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections despite violent protests in Assam since its passage in December 2019.
Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the former general secretary of AASU, who formed Asom Jatiya Parishad, an anti-CAA regional party, demanded that the CAA be scrapped immediately as the SC's judgment nullified the cut-off-date of the CAA. "The SC clearly said that anyone who entered Assam illegally after March 24, 1971, is an illegal migrant and would not avail the benefits of the Section 6A of the Citizenship Act."
Calling the SC verdict historic, senior Congress MLA Debabrata Saikia said the CAA must be scrapped as it violates the section 6A of the Citizenship Act and the Assam Accord.
"The Centre must not impose the 2014 cut-off-date on the Assamese people through the CAA. The Assam Accord was signed under Congress rule to solve the foreigners problem and secure the future of the indigenous Assamese people. The CAA seeks to nullify the Accord." Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front, also reiterated the demand for scrapping the CAA saying the same violates the secular nature of the Constitution.