Citizenship (amendment) bill protests erupt in NE ahead of Amit Shah's visit to Mizoram

GUWAHATI: Ahead of BJP national president and Union home minister Amit Shah’s scheduled visit to Aizawl on Saturday to connect with the people of northeastern region on centre’s proposed bill to amend the Citizenship Act in November, large scale protests against the legislation erupted in several state capitals of the region.
Mizoram’s powerful coordination committee of NGOs, which, in an unprecedented way, had forced the Election Commission to shift out the state chief electoral officer in the last assembly election is opposing the bill.
They had also boycotted Republic Day celebrations this year in the state in protest against the bill as they fear the promulgation of the bill into an Act will encourage large influx of Chakma refugees from adjoining Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh to the state.
In Kohima, the Nagaland Joint Committee on Prevention of Illegal Immigrants (JCPI) held protest march, which started from Badminton Stadium and ended outside the residence of the chief minister Neiphu Rio. Later they submitted a memorandum to the chief minister.
JCPI strongly opposed the proposed Citizenship bill in its present form, which inter alia, seeks to declare persons belonging to minority communities (Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan) not be treated as illegal immigrants.
In Itanagar, the protest was led by Northeast Forum for Indigenous People. The forum said it is high time people of the region become aware.
JCPI asked the chief ministers of northeastern states to come together and oppose the bill. “Presently there are three to four lakh illegal occupants in Dimapur and with Assam publishing final National Register of Citizens (NRC) on August 31 this is going to rise further. Once there is CAB these occupants will be naturalised and Nagaland will not be same,” a statement said.
In Imphal too, hundreds of women and students took to streets to protest the CAB. The Manipur People Against Citizenship Amendment Bill (MANPAC) spearheaded the protest stated that CAB will render Assam accord null and void.
Dilipkumar Yumnamcha, convener of MANPAC said, “The bill is giving preference to outsiders and overlooking the indigenous people. If required we will seek United Nations intervention.”
Amit Shah will visit Mizoram on October 5. He is expected to address the party workers. Shah who visited Guwahati last month assured that new citizenship Amendment bill will be brought in parliament only after the consultation with the stakeholders.
Assam finance minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said that stakeholder discussion is on. The home minister has stated that bill be brought in next session of parliament and before that consultation process has to be over.
The Bill which is aimed at making minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible to apply for Indian citizenship was passed in Lok Sabha during the Narendra Modi-led government’s earlier tenure.
BJP had promised in its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, “We are committed to the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill for the protection of individuals of religious minority communities from neighbouring countries escaping persecution."