Protests broke out in several places in Assam, with agitators stripping themselves in public in Tinsukia, over Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's comment that if the Citizenship Bill is not passed "we will be surrendering to Jinnah's policy".
The minister on Sunday had also said people are commenting on the bill in a "reactionary way" and intellectuals are trying to build a "wrong narrative", but clarified that he was not pointing to any community.
"I am meaning (Pakistan's founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah) Jinnah, I am not meaning any community," Sarma had said.
However, protesting organisations such as the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) alleged that Sarma through his comments was trying to polarise the electorate ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014.
"Without that bill, we are surrendering to the philosophy of Jinnah. If those people are not there, the Sarbhog seat will go to Jinnah. Do we want that? This is a fight between Jinnah's legacy and India's legacy, Sarma had told reporters while addressing a press conference on Sunday.
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BJP state president Ranjit Dass represents the Sarbhog assembly seat.
"So, let the bill be passed and we will see if there is a provision of welcoming Bangladeshis in it. And, I am sure that is not there," he said.
The minister said if we delete six lakh people from the voters list, the demography will change and "you will not retain Assam."
"That is why all this exercise is going on. So, in my view, Citizenship Bill and Clause-6 (of Assam Accord) are complementary. The bill itself will strengthen us. If the bill is not there, we will lose Sarbhog and many other seats."
Asked if implementing the Bill will not contradict the Accord, Sarma said, "Let the Accord be violated, but let us not go to Jinnah. You have to determine between a word of Assam Accord and Jinnah. Which way will you go? We are not apologetic. We trying to do something for the people of Assam and save the state from Jinnah."
Reacting sharply to this, AASU General Secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi told PTI, "These are baseless and communal statement. He is showing fear of Muslims to get Hindu votes, but people are not fools."
KMSS adviser Akhil Gogoi said, "The makers of India and common people did not take side of Jinnah, but supported a secular country. Talking about Jinnah at this time is deliberately done to polarise the society before the polls. By doing so, he is trying to spread the communal agenda of RSS."
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