GUWAHATI: The BJP-led Assam government on Friday maintained that it would take a stand on the Citizenship (Amendment ) Bill 2016 in conformity with the general public even as protests are raging in the state against the Bill.
State’s senior Cabinet minister, Chandra Mohan Patowary said, “The government will give its opinion on the Bill before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) only after the NRC update work is complete in the state. The NRC is a vital constitutional document to safeguard the identity of the people of Assam and the state government will not do anything that could jeopardize its finalization.”
Addressing a press conference here, Patowary said, “There has been a volatile situation in the state since the last 3-4 days over the Bill. A section of people is trying to provoke the general public over the Bill for their own nefarious gains.”
“The government will never take any decision that it will harm the state. We had formed the government with the people’s blessings and we will continue to work by taking the people into confidence,” he said.
He added that the state government will consult the BJP leaders also before forming its final opinion on the Bill.
Pointing that incumbent CM Sarbananda Sonowal had got the IM(DT) Act scrapped by acting as an individual in 2005, Patowary said, “The intentions of such a person as Sonowal, who had time and again displayed his love for the motherland, should not be questioned by any quarter. It is on his instruction that I am addressing this press conference to clarify to and pacify the people.”
Lambasting the Opposition Congress, Patowary alleged that the-then Congress government in Assam on July 16, 2014 had adopted a Cabinet resolution in favour of granting asylum / citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from Bangladesh, whose ancestors were citizens of undivided India.
“The Congress had supported the citizenship move, when in power. Now, one section of the party opposes the Bill, while another comes out in support,” he said.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, was introduced in the Lok Sabha in July, 2016, to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to make illegal migrants from six religious communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains and Christians — from select neighbouring countries eligible for Indian citizenship.