NEW DELHI: Congress Members of Parliament from North East along with their counterparts in the Left and other opposition parties trooped into the well of the House and later walked out in protest against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which was later passed in the Lok Sabha by voice vote.
The proposed bill was opposed even by those that were allies of the BJP, saying it is “against the fundamental aspects of the Indian constitution”. Asom Gana Parishad, a regional ally of the BJP, exited the ruling coalition in Assam on Monday.
Congress MPs from NE, including Vincent H Pala and Gaurav Gogoi, stormed the well, while raising slogans and carried placards that said “Stop Citizenship Bill 2016”. They demanded that it be referred to a Parliamentary Committee to adjudge its constitutionality.
The leaders of the Congress then walked out of the Parliament to make their displeasure felt. When interacting with the media outside the Parliament, they said that is truly ‘a black day in the Parliament’.
“The bill is nothing but to please one section of the vote bank, that too in certain constituencies, Pala told the media after walking out. This will never succeed and will have a serious backlash”, he added.
The political parties and the civil society opposing the proposed law say it would allow citizenship to illegal Hindu migrants from Bangladesh, who came to the state after March 24, 1971, in violation of the Assam Accord of 1985. Illegal migration is a sensitive issue in the region, where tribals and other ethnic communities wish to keep out the outsiders.
The opposition parties say the bill links religion to citizenship and want it to be “religion and country neutral”.
The bill has proven problematic in many ways, with concerns being raised with how it is anti-constitutional as it makes illegal migrants eligible for citizenship on the basis of religion, Gogoi said. It also dilutes the terms of the Assam Accord and would lead to a large influx of Bangladeshi illegal migrants into Assam, he added.
Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy said the Citizenship Bill would “lead to fires” not just in Assam, but in the entire North East. The bill might create divisions and that the select committee had shot down all suggested amendments.
