Assam BJP To Organise Mega-Rally In Support Of Citizenship Law

Amid massive protests in Assam against the amended Citizenship Act, the BJP's state unit will organise a booth-level president's conclave in Guwahati on Saturday in an attempt to show its strength. The conclave will be attended by BJP's working president JP Nadda, the party's national general secretary Ram Madhav and other top BJP leaders. They will address around 70,000 party workers, according to party sources.

This is going to be BJP's first mega rally in Guwahati after violent protests took place in Assam since December last year.

The party has also claimed that its 4.2 million BJP 'karyakartas' (workers) will reach out to people to explain the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Ever since the protests sparked across the country, the BJP has claimed a misinformation campaign against the law. Protests have sparked across Assam since December 9 last year.

The BJP had in December organised a few peace rallies in different parts of the state.

To counter the BJP, former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said the Congress would introduce a resolution against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, reported news agency PTI.

The BJP adopted a "double standard" on the foreigners' issue, said Mr Gogoi. He was quoted by PTI as saying that the BJP accused the Congress of vote-bank politics, but "when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister and I was the Chief Minister, they wanted to issue work permits to the illegal foreigners".

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act for the first time makes religion the test of citizenship in India. The government says it will help minorities from three Muslim-dominated countries to get citizenship if they fled to India before 2015 because of religious persecution. Critics say it is designed to discriminate against Muslims and violates the secular principles of the constitution.

(With Inputs From PTI)