SHILLONG: “ It is not a Hitler regime where one man can sit and decide everything, said senior Congress leader and MLA, Ampareen Lyngdoh while vehemently opposing the move of the Joint Parliamentary Committee to approve the Citizenship Amendment Bill in its present form.
It may be mentioned that the JPC which was examining the controversial bill has adopted its amid protest by opposition MPs and the report will be tabled in the Lok Sabha on January 7.
Speaking to media persons, Ampareen Lyngdoh said that 2019 General elections are just around the corner and the BJP led NDA will be given the lesson of their life
Stating that everyone in the North East is against the Bill, she added that the sudden ideas of the Union Government like the controversial Amendment Bill should be thoroughly examined
Fearing that the Bill is going to create very huge problems in the North East, she added that even the Meghalaya Government had vehemently opposed the Bill
Lamenting that she as an MLA was not invited by the JPC when they visited Shillong to take views of the people on the Bill, Lyngdoh added that Delhi cannot decide everything and one JPC’s one sitting with stakeholders to discuss the bill is not sufficient
“ The NDA at the Centre has this habit of ignoring the sentiments of the states and the federal structure of the country must be respected by them,” she said
It may be recalled that Meghalaya Cabinet earlier this year had vehemently opposed the the Citizenship Amendment Bill
Apart from NGOs, even Shillong MP , Vincent Pala has expressed his stiff opposition to the Bill.
The Bill seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians – from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don’t possess any proper document. Muslims are a notable omission from the list on the ground that they constitute the majority communities in the three neighbouring nations.