The legislators of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) on Monday squatted with black masks outside the gate of the Assam Assembly to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
They also displayed placards with anti-CAA slogans before the start of a special one-day session of the Assembly to adopt a resolution on ratification of the Reservation Bill for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes for 10 years up to January 2030.
The AIUDF, led by parliamentarian and perfume baron Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, has 13 MLAs in the 126-member House.
Address disrupted
The session began on a stormy note as Opposition MLAs of the Congress and AIUDF disrupted Governor Jagdish Mukhi’s customary address in which he claimed the law and order situation in Assam was satisfactory.
Members of the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chhatra Parishad (AJYCP) also staged a sit-in near the Assembly demanding an immediate rollback of the CAA and bringing Assam under inner-line permit (ILP) as mandated by the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.
ILP in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, requiring Indians from other States to possess a temporary permit to visit them.
“We want the Assam Assembly to pass a resolution against CAA and for stricter regulations to discourage settlement by foreigners and outsiders,” AJYCP leader Palash Changmai said.
