Guwahati: At a large gathering of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters here, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would never harm the interests of Assamese people, adding that there could a conspiracy behind the mass uprising against the new law.
The rally was attended by several senior party functionaries, including BJP working president JP Nadda, state chief Ranjit Kumar Das and Health and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Over 60,000 BJP workers, including booth presidents and elected representatives, were also present at the gathering held at the veterinary college playground, Khanapara, Guwahati, on Saturday.
Making an emotional appeal to citizens from the mega rally, Sonowal said, “Have we done anything wrong in the last three-and-a-half years? Don’t doubt us unnecessarily. CAA will never harm the existence of Assamese people. The Centre and state governments are taking measures to ensure that.”
He said there is a big conspiracy and some people were trying to dislodge the government in a bid to grab power.
After days of violent anti-CAA protests in which a number of lives were lost and and public properties were set ablaze or totally damaged, peaceful agitations, led by students and artistes, have taken over across the state.
Sarma, who is also considered the BJP’s main man in the region and heads the party-led North-East Democratic Alliance, challenged those planning to form a new political party amid the ongoing agitation.
"If anyone is dreaming to become CM of the state or forming a new political party, the BJP will answer these individuals politically,” he said.
Taking a jibe at popular singer Zubeen Garg, who has been at the forefront of the anti-CAA protests in the state, Sarma said, "If someone says I don’t believe in God, we want to tell them that we don’t want such a Leftist ideology movement.”
Over the last few days, Garg has been repeatedly quoting a dialogue from his blockbuster movie ‘Kanchanjangha’ that says ‘Mur kunu jati nai, mur kunu dhormo nai, mur kunu bhogowan nai’ (I don’t have any community, religion or God).
Nadda and BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav also reiterated the Narendra Modi government’s commitment to protect Assam and Assamese from the threat of Bangladeshi immigration.
Das, the BJP’s state unit chief, announced a series of booth-level awareness and outreach programmes on the new law from January 7 to 11. “Every booth committee will have a ‘sampark abhiyan’ to connect with the people of the state,” he said, adding peace and progress rallies will be organised in Biswanath Chariali and Dhemaji on January 7 and 8, respectively.
While on January 12, the party has planned a ‘Yuva Sampark Abhiyan’, it will observe Shilpi Diwas on January 17, which is also the death anniversary of Assamese cultural doyen Jyotiprasad Agarwala.
Voter list observation would be held between January 20 and 25, Republic Day celebration the next day, a programme dedicated to women, titled ‘Aideu Bulani’ would be held on January 28. The outreach programme would end on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30.
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