New Delhi, Dec. 5 (IANS): The redrafted Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) will likely exclude 3 states in the North-East out of its ambit besides the tribal areas in around three other N-E states.
This comes in the wake of Union Home Minister and BJP President Amit Shah meeting in Delhi with nine representatives from four organisations who are strongly against the Bill.
Three north-eastern states -- Arunachal, Nagaland and Mizoram -- where the Inner Line Permit (ILP) regime is applicable will be out of the purview of the CAB that created a political row in the area in the run-up to the 2019 general election.
The ILP is an official travel document issued by the government of India to allow inward travel of an Indian citizen into a protected area for a limited period. The ILP regime is under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. Section 2 of the regulation says the ILP system is present in Arunachal, Mizoram and Nagaland.
Before the 2019 general election, several outfits in Assam and Mizoram hit the streets claiming the proposed Bill would “open the floodgates” of people from neighbouring countries, altering the unique ethnic and demographic nature of the area.
The politically sensitive Bill, which has already ruffled the feathers of the Opposition, will leave out tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura as well, sources said. These are the tribal areas where autonomous councils and districts were created under the 6th Schedule of the Constitution.
These areas enjoy certain legislative powers. The draft of the Bill reads: “Nothing in this section shall apply to tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and the area covered under ‘The Inner Line’ notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.” Mizoram falls under the ILP.
However, the draft is silent about the fate of Sikkim. The non-tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura will fall within the ambit of the Bill.
Though the Bill in its present form seeks to allay much of tribals’ concerns in the North-East, it may also strike a discordant note by keeping away the other 3 states.
Hours before the cabinet gave its nod to the redrafted bill, Shah met at least nine representatives from four organisations who were vehemently against the BIll. Shah is believed to have comforted them with an assurance that the unique identity of the North-East will not be altered in exchange for a promise that the groups will not protest the amended Bill.
The four organisations that met Shah were Manipur People Against Citizenship Amendment Bill (MANPAC), Zeliangrong Union (Assam, Manipur, Nagaland unit), The North East Forum for Indigenous People (NEFIP) and Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM)’s Imphal Unit. Apart from Shah, Chief Ministers from three North Eastern states - Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, were also present in the meeting in New Delhi, on late Tuesday night.
Anti-citizenship bill protesters hit Assam streets
Protesters took to the street across Assam against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on Thursday as the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti said it would move the Supreme Court if the Bill is passed in Parliament.
Workers of several social and youth organisations joined the KMSS in a massive rally here demanding that the Bill be scrapped, while opposition Congress MLAs demonstrated against it in the Assembly premises.
The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and others also took out rallies across the state denouncing the Bill which is likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 9 and taken up for passage the next day.
Accusing the ruling BJP at the Centre and the state of sacrificing the sentiment of the Assamese people at the cost of vote bank politics, KMSS chief Akhil Gogoi said, “If the CAB is not scrapped, the people will overthrow the Sarbananda Sonowal-led BJP government in 2021 (when Assam goes to polls)”.
“If the 1.9 crore Hindus of Bangladesh come to Assam within a few years and attain Indian citizenship under CAB, the existence of the Assamese language will be threatened and the jobs and land will be taken away by them depriving the indigenous people,” Akhil Gogoi said.
“If the Bill is passed by Parliament, the KMSS will move the Supreme Court. The movements on the street will also continue. Assam will never accept the CAB,” Gogoi, also an RTI activist, said.
Condemning state minister and Asom Gana Parishad president Atul Bora’s comment that Assam has to accept a few thousand Bangladeshis, the RTI activist threatened to start a movement against the party if it does not change its stand in favour of the indigenous people.
Gogoi addressed the protesters during a sit-in demonstration near the Assembly which is in session and the adjacent state secretariat. The KMSS and others then took out a procession along the arterial Guwahati-Shillong Road.
Leaders and supporters of the KMSS coming from other parts of the state to join the protest programme here were detained by the police at various places.
The opposition Congress MLAs led by their legislature party leader Debabrata Saikia also demonstrated in the Assembly premises, holding banners and shouting slogans opposing the Bill.
Members of the AASU and 30 other indigenous ethnic organisations also took out motorcycle rallies in Jorhat, Golaghat and other parts of the state.
AIUDF workers staged a rally opposing the Bill in Nalbari district and burnt effigies of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Sonowal.
Dissension in the ruling AGP was noticed when leaders of Tezpur unit told reporters that the party’s grass root workers did not support the amendment as it was against the interest of the indigenous people’s existence and language.
The BJP’s alliance partner AGP appears to be divided on the issue with its founding president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta opposing the Bill, while its current chief and state Agriculture Minister Atul Bora coming out in its support.
Road, rail blockade in Tripura
Thousands of tribals on Thursday blockade Tripura’s main National Highway and lone railway line to protest the Citizenship Amendment Bill cutting off the northeastern state from the remaining part of the country.
The 12-hour (since 6 am) National Highway and solitary railway line blockade was organised at Sadhupara in West Tripura district by the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), Tripura’’s oldest tribal based party, demanding not to introduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Parliament.
West Tripura District police chief Manik Lal Das said that huge contingent of Central Reserve Police Force, Tripura State Rifles and police were deployed in the mountainous areas to deal with any eventuality.
“The situation was normal and under control. We are negotiating with the picketers and their leaders to withdraw the blockade to normalise the road and rail traffic,” Das told IANS over phone from the blockade sites, 35 km north of Agartala.
INPT General Secretary Jagadhish Debbarma said that they in no way allow executing the amended citizenship law in Tripura and other parts of the northeast India.
“We urge upon the central government not to introduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Parliament and the proposed law would destabilize the demographic structure of the northeast and jeopardize the stability, life and culture of the indigenous people of the region,” Debbarma, a veteran tribal leader, told the media.
A delegation of IPFT, led by General Secretary and Tripura Forest and Tribal Welfare Minister Mevar Kumar Jamatia, also met several central ministers to push their demands. Another local tribal based party, the Twipraland State Party, observed a 12-hour shutdown in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) areas on December 2 on the same issue.
CAB will usher radicalised militancy in NE— GSU
The Garo Student’s Union (GSU) on Thursday appealed to the Central government not to introduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Parliament in order to thwart a more “radicalised militancy in the northeastern states”.
The appeal from the GSU, one of the constituents of the North East Student’s Organisation came a day after the Union Cabinet approved to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to provide Indian nationality to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists fleeing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Alleging that the central government is unsympathetic to the plight of Northeast, GSU president Tengsak G. Momin said, “the BJP is just concentrating on Hindu Rashtra Movement while we the indigenous peoples of North East will be facing an existential threat.”
“Perhaps the Mizos are right about their slogan ‘Bye-bye India, Hello China’ because after ‘Bangladisation’ of North East it will definitely be ‘Bye-bye India, Hello Bangladesh’ because we will be living with so many Bangladeshis in our own land,” the GSU leader noted.
Further, he said that the introduction of the bill is to protect the illegal Hindu immigrants not simply to give refuge to persecuted minorities from six religions while persecuting in India itself the people belonging to the same religion under the Hindu Rashtra movement.
Reiterating its strong opposition against the Citizenship bill, Momin said, “We will fight tooth and nail against the destructive policy which will effect a drastic demographic change and will be pursuing for agitation programmes all over North East to mark our protest.”