SHILLONG: The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) and Congress leader and MLA from Mawlai, PT Sawkmie, on Tuesday slammed Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb for his statement on Monday that there is nothing in the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that could harm the nation.
The KSU said the proposed amendments would have an effect on the entire North East.
The statement of Deb followed close on the heels of demand from several NGOs from the North East to scrap the Bill.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme, KSU general secretary Donald Thabah said, “People can say there is no effect but it will have an effect on the indigenous communities. How can Biplab Deb say that?”
Stating that Tripuris have been reduced to a minority in Tripura, the KSU leader said that Deb’s antecedents may be from Bangladesh.
“Even in Assam out of 24 districts, 12 are overwhelmed by immigrants. The next is Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Our community will be erased once the bill is passed,” he said.
The KSU leader asserted that there is influx of Nepalis in the state following the Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty of 1950 even though the state does not share borders with the country, and with the state sharing over a hundred kilometers of boundary with Bangladesh, it will be the worst affected by immigrants from Bangladesh.
With the Centre pointing to humanitarian ground for providing citizenship to foreigners, he said it should instead consider the humanitarian perspective of its own citizens.
“If the Centre prioritises outsiders over its own citizens especially the indigenous inhabitants of India, it will then regard us as second class citizens,” he said.
He also cited a speech by Narendra Modi before becoming the Prime Minister, in which he said that India is not making progress due to political parties playing vote bank politics.
“He said, ‘We should do away with vote bank politics and start development politics for India to progress.’ Asking the Bangladeshi Hindus to come to India is not development politics, but vote bank politics,” Thabah said.
According to Thabah, successive governments have come and gone but the demand and priority of the union is to tackle influx.
He spoke of the need for having many laws in the state as laws will always have one or the other loophole or lacunae.
“ILP is a long process as it needs to be passed in the Parliament, but we still demand ILP and as the demand continues, the entry/exit and Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act, 2016 is still fine for us,” he added.
On the other hand, Sawkmie said the statement of the Tripura chief minister is unacceptable in Meghalaya, adding it is not surprising to see him justifying the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 and defending it.
“He is compelled to defend the Bill or otherwise he may not be able to continue as a Chief Minister,” Sawkmie said.
Reiterating Congress party’s opposition to the Bill since it’s dangerous for the region, he urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to introduce it in parliament.
