All Assam Students Union (AASU) organised a protest here today against the Centre's recent move to rehabilitate Hindu Bengali people of Bangladesh in the country.
AASU, which had spearheaded the six-year long anti-foreigners Assam agitation in the 1980s, vehemently opposed the Centre's intention to grant citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindus, which, it said, contradicts the Assam Accord.
AASU president Dipankor Nath, general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi, chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya, and other leaders told the gathering that there is no scope in the Assam Accord, signed at the end of the agitation to consider foreigners on the basis of religion.
"People of Assam will not allow the BJP and its allies to play vote-bank politics in the next election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his 'Maan ki baat' expresses his mind but does not try to read the minds of the people," Bhattacharyya said.
"If this position is not changed, then the people of Assam will teach a lesson in the 2016 state Assembly election like the people of Bihar," he asserted.
The Centre had in September decided to allow minority refugees from Bangladesh and Pakistan to stay in India even after expiry of their visas on humanitarian grounds.
In April this year, BJP president Amit Shah had said that Hindu refugees from Bangladesh will be given Indian citizenship if BJP comes to power in Assam in next year's Assembly poll.
