Mass agitation against CAB in NE region today

Dimapur, Nov. 17 (EMN): Even as the central government is all set to introduce the controversial the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), the North East Forum for Indigenous People (NEFIP) has announced resumption of mass agitations against the Bill from November 18. “In spite of giving any heed to our incessant protests and prayer in the form of memorandum, the same Bill is going to be introduced in the forthcoming Winter Session of the Parliament 2019 undermining the aspirations and legitimate rights of the indigenes of the region. “To recognise such illegal immigrants as ‘natural persons’ who can acquire Indian Citizenship on the basis religious identity runs antithetical to the Constitution. NEFIP is of the opinion that the eligibility criterion to grant citizenship to these illegal migrants besides being unreasonable and unlawful is genocidal for the indigenes of the entire NE region,” the forum stated in a press release issued on Sunday. It stated that giving shelter and providing citizenship to the “so-called religiously prosecuted migrants who are in fact economic labours” would adversely prosecute the indigenous population of the entire Northeast region. The NEFIP is affirmed of the fact that accepting the legalization of CAB and submitting to the “Genocidal Act” is suicidal and will lead to total extinction of the indigenous population of the entire Northeast, it added. Aside from resumption of mass agitation, the forum also resolved that the federating state organisations should own the initiative organising the protest according to the local situation and ground realities; to bring an understanding among different likeminded social organisations to oppose the Bill collectively; and to request all the MPs and the members of the respective state legislative assemblies of the NE region to oppose the Bill.