Major political parties and student groups of the Northeast on Sunday intensified their campaign against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the national Capital, with a series of meetings with leaders of the BJP, Congress and other parties urging them not to pass it in the Rajya Sabha.
A delegation of 11 political parties of the Northeast, including the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the National People’s Party, met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and requested him not to press for passing the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, according to AGP leader and former Union Minister Birendra Prasad Baishya. The delegation was led by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma.
In a related development veteran Manipuri filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma said that he would return the Padma Shri as a mark of protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, terming it “anti-Northeast”.
Earlier in the day, former Assam chief minister and founder-president of the AGP Prafulla Kumar Mahanta along with other party leaders met Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Samajwadi Party leaders urging them to take a stand against the bill.
The leaders of the regional parties of the Northeast, who are camping in Delhi, will meet representatives of all political parties so that the bill is not passed in the Upper House, Baishya said. A team of top leaders of the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), comprising major students’ groups of the region, met Biju Janata Dal leader Bhartruhari Mahtab and requested him to ensure that his party votes against the bill if it is brought in the Upper House.
NESO advisor Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharjya told PTI that they have met the leadership of the JD-U, which already declared its opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, and will meet leaders of the Congress, Shiv Sena, Akali Dal and some others parties in the next two days.
The bill provides for according Indian citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after seven years of residence in India instead of 12 years, which is the norm currently, even if they do not possess any document.
The legislation was passed by the Lok Sabha during the Winter Session on January 8 and has been awaiting Rajya Sabha nod. There has been strong opposition in Assam and other Northeastern states against the bill.
The political parties have been protesting on the grounds that the bill seeks to grant nationality to non-Muslims who have come up to December 31, 2014, thereby, increasing the deadline from 1971 as per the Assam Accord.
Also, according to the Assam Accord, all illegal immigrants who have come after 1971, irrespective of their religion, have to be deported and this bill violates that. Addressing the joint sitting of Parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind Thursday said the bill will give justice to persecuted minorities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan through Indian nationality.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also announced that the bill is an “atonement of the wrong that was done during India’s Partition. India will safeguard all who had been victims of the Partition”.
The 83-year-old director, Aribam Syam Sharma, known for Manipuri films such as “Olangthagee Wangmadasu”, “Imagi Ningthem” and “Ishanou”, said the plea of the Northeast people to not let the bill pass was not being heard by the Centre. He was bestowed with the country’s fourth highest civilian honour in 2006.
“The bill is against the interest of the Northeast and its people, especially in Manipur. All the leaders of the states in the Northeast have already requested the central government to reconsider (on the bill’s passage). But when I was following the news, our honourable prime minister announced that the bill would be passed soon. He also requested the chief minister of West Bengal to help him pass the bill. That means the government, rather the BJP, is determined to pass this bill. They are not listening to us,” Sharma said.
Citing the example of Tripura, the filmmaker said history would repeat itself in Manipur if the bill is passed. “We have already seen this in Tripura. Tripuris are having no say in Tripura... The population of Manipur is only 28-29 lakhs, which is less than the population of a district in Uttar Pradesh. The smaller states like Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya have protection. Even then they are protesting because if the bill is passed the indigenous people will have no place. They will be wiped out. It may not happen now, but it will happen 50 years from today,” he said adding returning the award was the only way in which he could raise his voice against the bill.
