Need Resolute, Unified Anti-CAA Movement: Akhil Gogoi From Prison

He expressed his concerns about the “protracted, dawdling and directionless” movement.

Peasant leader and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Jorhat, Assam, on 12 December, has written an open letter to the leadership of Assam's national organisations regarding the anti-CAA movement, reports Raiot.

Expressing his concern about the "protracted, dawdling and directionless" movement, he writes, "The time is no longer suitable to carry out symbolic protests. At this moment, we need a resolute, unified mass movement that can bring the government to its knees."

Using the example of the mass struggle in Assam during med-December, he says that the movement to repeal an act of the parliament "ought to be unprecedentedly and overwhelmingly forceful and intense."

In his letter, he also reportedly talks about the formation of a new regionalist political party which represents the interests of Assam and has popular support.

“For the national interest of the Assamese nation, we will have to comprehensively defeat the BJP in the Assam Legislative Assembly election, 2021.”

Akhil Gogoi, RTI Activist

Gogoi, according to Raiot, also expresses reservations about the court case against the controversial Act.

"The Supreme Court has decided to set up a five-judge constitution bench to hear the petitions filed against the CAA. A constitutional bench is set up so that the matter will be in the court for a prolonged period of time. It is indeed worrying that the Supreme Court refused to put a stay on the CAA," he says.

Talking about his own incarceration, Gogoi insists that he has been a victim of a government conspiracy aimed at shaping the movement according to its will. "We, the people of Assam must unitedly and unrelentingly move ahead toward victory by overthrowing this conspiracy," he writes.

Gogoi was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Jorhat on 12 December, when large-scale protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act were taking place in Assam, under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

the NIA also searched the residence of Akhil Gogoi in Guwahati on Thursday, and seized several documents and a laptop computer, officials said.

Officials of the anti-terror force searched Gogoi's residence in Nizarapara area of Guwahati and also seized copies of his PAN card, an SBI debit card, an Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) and a bank passbook.

(Akhil Gogoi’s open letter was translated by Raiot. Inputs from PTI)