GUWAHATI: Assam’s peasant leader and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi, who was detained under the National Security Act (NSA), has been released from jail after he secured bail in all the cases against him and vowed to fight the BJP and any move to grant citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis.
A court in Goalpara had granted bail to Gogoi in a case related to the defacing a signboard of a college named after Jan Sangh ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya at Dudhnoi.
“I thank all the people of Assam for standing with me in upholding the democratic values of the country. My fight against the BJP and this fascist government will continue. I will work against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which is for giving the Hindu refugees all the rights of the citizens,” Gogoi said after coming out of jail.
He had spent three-and-a-half months in prison.
Gogoi also announced the launch of a movement for peaceful completion of a “true” National Register of Citizens (NRC), so that no untoward incident took place after it was published.
“After that, we will work for issuance of photo identity cards to all genuine Indians. We will also work for a peaceful deportation of all the foreigners,” Gogoi, who leads the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), said.
Expressing his apprehension that he might be re-arrested in two old cases, Gogoi said, “There is no democracy in the state. I am happy that the (Narendra) Modi government has, for the first time, imposed the NSA on me. The KMSS is only happy to stand up against this fascist government.”
On December 21, the Gauhati High Court had declared the detention of Gogoi under the NSA illegal. The stringent provisions of the act, dealing with sedition, were slapped against him, 11 days after his arrest on September 13.
However, the police had re-arrested Gogoi on December 22 for the defacement of the college signboard, though the FIR had not named the KMSS leader.
Gogoi has been leading a series of agitations against the government’s handling of the agrarian crisis in Assam, building of big dams, land mafia, corruption and alleged polarization of the society by Hindutva forces.
Addressing a rally in Moran town on September 12, Gogoi had said if Hindu migrants from Bangladesh were thrust upon Assam, the people of the state would be forced to take up arms.
He was arrested the next day. -PTI
