SHILLONG: A protest against the move to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was organised by the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) in the city on Friday.
NESO criticised the political injustice meted out by the Indian Government to the North Eastern Region (NER).
Chairman of NESO Samuel Jyrwa said: “History has shown us that right from the inception of independence, the North Eastern Region has been receiving only political injustice. The illegal Bangladeshis are being dumped in different parts of the North Eastern Region.”
Jyrwa asserted that the Centre brought the Bill with an intention to wipe out the different indigenous communities of the region which would reduce them to a minority in their own land.
“We want to send a clear message to the Centre that we will not accept this Bill and will fight tooth and nail. Our fight is not for us but for our future generation. We should be ready to sacrifice for the lives our own people,” Jyrwa said.
He also stated that the student unions in different parts of the region are struggling against the menace of influx which is a threat to the identity of the people and said that the students will unite and will not allow the North East to become a dumping ground.
Earlier, speakers from all seven sister states registered their protest against the Bill and the upsurge of illegal migrants.
Stating that the central government should not force its opinion on the indigenous people, Jyrwa said: “This is our land and Delhi should not decide our future, we will decide our own future.”
Jyrwa also cited the Armed Forces Special Powers Act as being another draconian law imposed in Jammu and Kashmir and in the North East.
“This law is imposed in the North East and J & K on the reason that there is insurgency in the North Eastern region. This is the political injustice that we received from the GOI,” he said.
Reminding the people that Bangladeshis had been put in different parts of the North East in 1971, Jyrwa slammed the central government for ignoring the indigenous people and suppressing their rights.
“Instead of protecting the different states of the North Eastern Region, the Government of India imposed draconian laws on the people instead,” he said.
The NESO Chairman stated that several treaties and accords have been signed between different communities of the region, however, the Government of India has till date failed to implement the treaties and accords.
Delhi protest
Jyrwa also informed that the protest against the Bill will not stop and will continue in New Delhi in the upcoming days and urged the different organizations in Delhi to organise and mobilize the people of the region.
Meanwhile, Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) President Lambokstarwell Marngar said that the Citizenship Amendment Bill will destroy the identity of the tribals and maintained that the state governments of the region should not implement the Bill.
