A former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist was among hundreds of people who have responded to a drive to collect “protest gamosas” for a proposed memorial for the “martyrs” of the movement against Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the Assam unit of the Congress claimed on Friday.
A gamosa is a traditional Assamese scarf-towel. The Congress aims to collect at least 50 lakh gamosas with anti-CAA messages and names of donors to be displayed at the memorial it has promised to build after coming to power in Assam.
“I demand a complete rollback of CAA as a responsible citizen,” said Mukul Chandra Saikia, a former RSS member and educationist.
The “protest gamosa” donors included Binita Hore, a Bengali Hindu. “The CAA has become a bane for our community that has been living peacefully in Assam for the last 40 years,” she said after handing over a gamosa to Debabrata Saikia, the Congress Legislature Party leader in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia.
“I am a Bengali Hindu and I do not want CAA to be implemented,” wrote social worker Sushanta Dutta on the gamosa he handed over to Mr Saikia.
Congress leader Bobbeeta Sharma said the anti-CAA gamosa collection drive evoked a massive response from women, college students, entrepreneurs, senior citizens and private sector employees.
“Mamoni Stafford, the mother of the Sam Stafford, the 17-year-old who died in police firing during the 2019 anti-CAA protests, was among the first to hand over a gamosa to former minister and senior party leader Rakibul Hussain,” she said.
