Itanagar: A day after the BJP promised in its election manifesto to enact the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill if voted back to power, Union minister Kiren Rijiju said Tuesday people of the northeastern states will be consulted before bringing up the bill.
Even if the bill is implemented in the rest of the country, there will be special provisions for the region, Rijiju said.
The contentious bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to people belonging to minority communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians — in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India even if they do not possess proper documents.
A largescale protest had broken out in the northeastern states earlier this year as the indigenous people of the region apprehended the enactment of the bill would endanger their livelihood and identity. “If other states of the country want the bill to be enacted, the BJP is committed to bring it. However, for the northeast, the party will consult the people before taking any decision which is clearly mentioned in the manifesto,” the minister of state for home told reporters here.
“There should be no doubt among the people of the region, the BJP is committed to protect their rights,” Rijiju said. The bill, being vehemently opposed in the region even by some allies of BJP, was passed in Lok Sabha on January 8. (PTI)
