DIBRUGARH/GUWAHATI: RTI activist Akhil Gogoi, one of three speakers at an anti-bill rally slapped with a sedition case, on Saturday said the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will continue even during Magh Bihu, a festival of feasting. Akhil said he, along with other KMSS members, will begin a 24-hour hunger strike on the evening of January 14, which will mark ‘Uruka’, the eve of the festival that is traditionally celebrated with community feasting.Many KMSS members will hold fasts during the period across the state.“The festive fervour of Magh Bihu should not allow the anti-bill stir to die down. We have appealed to the people of Assam to make this year’s Magh Bihu festivity a part of the ongoing movement to save the indigenous tribes and communities of the state. If the citizenship bill is passed in Parliament, it will pose a a massive identity crisis in the state,” Akhil said.He also appealed to the people to hoist the traditional gamocha (traditional Assamese scarf) during Magh Bihu as a proud symbol of “Assamese nationalism” in the wake of the BJP-led government’s move to grant citizenship on religious lines. The gamocha should be unfurled in front of the ‘meji’ (thatched hut) that will be burnt amid community participation and in front of houses, he added.“We want to give a clear message to the BJP-led government at the Centre and in the state that the people of Assam would celebrate their very own festival of Magh Bihu in this hour of crisis by protesting against the bill. Many of us will stage a hunger strike during the festival, evading feasting and celebrations, to show our commitment towards the anti-bill movement,” he added.KMSS Dibrugarh district president Pradip Haloi said, “We will also join in the 24-hour hunger strike from the afternoon of January 14 in protest against the citizenship bill. There will be no community feasts or any kind of celebration by our members. When the future of our people and motherland is at stake, there is no point in holding celebrations. For us, it will be a joyless Magh Bihu this time.”Meanwhile, the 70-organization forum of indigenous and minority organizations led by KMSS and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) has urged the people of Assam to burn the copies of the citizenship bill just before the customary community feasting on ‘Uruka’.The forum also urged the people to take a pledge before the fire of ‘meji’ that they would thwart the Centre’s move to regularize the entry of migrants according to the bill. It has also urged the people of Assam to ensure that they would, starting from the eve of Magh Bihu, not allow any BJP leader to sponsor any of the festive celebrations and boycott all programmes organized by the BJP and RSS.AJYCP, which has been leading a relentless agitation against the bill, said that the protests would continue on all three days of Magh Bihu.“Our members have been sitting on dharnas and protests daily for a week now. The protests will continue even during Bihu. This is not a time for celebrations. People should realise that the pressure on the government must be kept intact. The danger of the bill getting passed is not over yet. Until the bill is scrapped, our agitation will continue,” AJYCP Dibrugarh district president Girin Chetia said.Protests against the bill continued in Dibrugarh on Saturday, as members of several organisations blocked the busy Convoy road in Dibrugarh town for almost 45 minutes. The blockade, which led to a huge traffic jam, was finally lifted after intervention of senior police and civil officials.In Duliajan too, local poets took to the streets in protest against the bill. The protesters, under the banner of All Assam Kobi Sanmilan, staged their stir by reciting poems against the bill.

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