Guwahati, Feb 24: Assam Congress has within a week collected at least one lakh gamusas as a mark of people’s opposition towards the Citizenship Amendment Act brought in by the BJP-led NDA government in December 2019.
Along with other regional parties in Assam, Congress, too, is playing to the gallery to build its support base in a bid to turn people’s sentiment against the Act, in their favour during the polls in April this year.
The party had last February 17 begain the Anti-CAA Gamosa campaign as part of which Congress party workers will go from house to house to collect gamusas — a white piece of clothes with red motif traditionally attached with Assam’s identity and culture — with their reasons on why CAA should be repealed written on it.
” Resonating with the plight of the people, in the State of Assam, the Congress Party’s cadres have been able to garner over One Lakh Gamosa’s through its door-to-door collection drive,” a media statement by the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) mentioned.
The drive was further amplified by senior leaders of the party sharing pictures of the gamusas in social media platforms with an hashtag My Anti-CAA Gamosa.
APCC president and Rajya Sabha member Ripun Bora said, “Amazed that over a period of few days, we have already collected over 1 lakh Gamosas bearing anti-CAA messages!”
Lok Sabha MP and Manifesto Committee chairman of Congres Gaurav Gogoi said “1 lakh gamosas within days is a testimony of the extraordinary response from across the State to @INCAssam’s #MyAntiCAAGamosa collection drive! Grateful to people for coming all out in support of our endeavours to ensure CAA is out for good in Assam.”
Other Congress leaders such as the party’s pre elections Publicity Committee Chairman, Rakibul Hussain, Lok Sabha MP, Pradyut Bordoloi, Congress Legislature Party Leader, Sri Debabrata Saikia, MP (LS) Abdul Khelque had joined in sharing the hashtags through their social media accounts.
According to certain political observers, The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, that grants citizenship to religious minorities such as Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Jain, Buddhist and Parsis, will play a deciding factor in the ensuing Assembly elections, especially in Upper Assam where the anti-CAA protests were most followed.
The Congress would have been a natural choice among those who opposed the act — Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 then — back in 2018 in the Parliament and managed to garner enough support to repel it in Rajya Sabha.
In December 2019, after coming to power for the second term, BJP-led NDA got the bill passed.
However, among the anti-CAA crusaders, two regional political parties have branched out — Assam Jatiya Parishad from All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad and Raijor Dal from Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti and about 60 other organisations — that have garnered major supports from those who opposed the act.
According to certain political observers, the anti-CAA stir had also left the BJP, despite its tall claims of clinching 100 out of 126 seats this elections, worried. This was evident from the fact that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in all the three visits to Assam went to places in upper Assam that had come to news more frequently during anti-CAA stir and not once spoke about the act.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, however, said in another poll-bound state, West Bengal that the CAA will be drafted after COVID-19 vaccination is over.
Congress, that had upoed its social media presence learning from mistakes in earlier instances, through its Twitter handle “Assam Bachao” that acts as a platform for peop5 with grievances against the ruling government, have expressed belief that it will soon cross the 50 Lakh mark, in few more days to come.
