Amid wide protests PM Modi arrives in Guwahati

February 8: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday arrived in Guwahati. He will perform Bhumi Puja for AIIMS at Changsari on the outskirts of the city and address a public rally on Saturday.

The Prime Minister was received by Assam BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport. PM Modi stay at Raj Bhavan tonight. On February 9th, 2019, he will embark on his two-day Northeast visit and fly to Arunachal Pradesh.

However, the Prime Minister on his way to Raj Bhavan from Guwahati Airport has to face mass protest. The students of Gauhati University mostly belonging to AASU and KMSS waved black flag to Prime Minister Modi near university campus in Jalukbari here when his convoy passed. The varsity students also burnt the effigy of the Prime Minister. They were protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

Choas prevailed at Guwahati on Friday evening as hundreds of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) activists blocked the roads and displayed black fags in protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Assam visit. Major roads leading to the Raj Bhawan witnessed bumper-to-bumper traffic as vehicles moved at a snail pace, causing severe inconvenience to thousands of people.

The AASU activists were barred from protesting on the road by the city police. The gates were locked and the AASU leaders were seen raising ‘Go back Modi’ from the other side of the gate.

Meanwhile,  Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which broke the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam, took out a torch rally in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. Former Assam Chief Minister and senior AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and Atul Bora also joined the torch rally and reiterated the party’s strong opposition to the BJP-led government’s move to implement the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.