Amidst continuing protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, across Assam, the Dibrugarh University students have 'banned' the entry of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal for his alleged silence on it, its students union said today.
The Dibrugarh University is Sonowal's alma mater.
Dibrugarh University Post Graduate Students' Union (DUPGSU) president Uttaran Goswami told reporters that the decision to ban the chief minister was taken by its members and the university's All Assam Students Union unit at a joint meeting yesterday as Sonowal had remained silent on the Bill and was not playing an active role to prevent the bill from being passed by Parliament.
Dibrugarh was once Sonowal's home constituency and he was banned from entering his alma mater, from where he had started his political journey due to his silence on the Bill, he said.
"We are against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, because it is against the people of Assam. We strongly oppose the bill as the BJP-led central government is trying to provide citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis," said DUPGSU general secretary David Hazarika.
3000 students of the university sent a memorandum to Sonowal strongly opposing the Bill and urged him to keep intact the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985.
"The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, should be repealed or Assam should be excluded from coverage of the Bill", it said.
Assam, the students union said, "Will not tolerate the peril to language, culture, land and indigenous demography that has been posed by the introduction of the Bill."