SHILLONG: The Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organization (CoMSO) which is under the umbrella organization of North East Forum of Indigenous People (NEFIP) staged a sit in demonstration on Friday as part of the protest against implementation of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB).
The sit-in demonstration was held at Additional Secretariat Parking lot in which members of CoMSO consisting of different social organizations took part and held anti-CAB placards.
Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, chairman of CoMSO, Robertjune Kharjahrin dismissed the BJP’s contention of religious persecution in countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan as the reason to bring CAB but asserted that it was the economic crisis in the respective countries and it was not an issue of religious persecutions.
He observed that the BJP bent on bringing back CAB in the coming Winter Session of the Parliament and said it showed that the Union government especially BJP is pushing forth for the implementation of CAB in the country.
Rejecting BJP’s claim of religious persecution, he argued that there BJP’s contention to protect the minority communities especially Hindus residing in the three countries is to transform India into a Hindutva country.
He added that India will be in a comfortable situation by bringing in the necessary vote bank through CAB and then change the “Secular” concept in the Indian Constitution.
Kharjahrin argued that India did not want to complain against Bangladesh on allegations of religious persecutions as India has plans to transform the country into a Hindutva state. He said there were two crore people in Bangladesh and questioned as to why they were not moving away from Bangladesh while India is determined to take them out.
“Many of the illegal immigrants who come to India are economic immigrants. There are economic crisis. The areas in Bangladesh are small and coupled with that it faces threats of floods. The people of North East and the state of Meghalaya find CAB to be unacceptable as it is against the spirit of the Constitution and the BJP has ulterior motives with regard to reviving CAB,” he said.
He added that if there are issues of religious persecutions in Bangladesh, India should not have come up with CAB. He cited the example of European Union (EU) which wrote to the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan warning to suspend all subsidies and impose sanctions as there were concerns of persecution of minority communities in Pakistan.
Kharjahrin said, “If EU can pressurize Pakistan and stop trade with the country, then why is it hard for India to act the same with Bangladesh and other countries? India can stop sending foreign aid to Bangladesh and it can also impose sanctions and why did not India approach United Nations?”
He stated that the reason why India does not want to complain against Bangladesh is because India has a hand in committing religious persecution with RSS leading the persecution.
Referring to Shah’s statement that CAB will not affect Article 371, Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, Inner Line Permit (ILP) and other state laws, Kharjahrin said that Article 371, Sixth Schedule will undergo change if the outsiders legislate the laws meant for indigenous community.
He observed that outsiders will outnumber the indigenous people if CAB is implemented and the indigenous communities will not feel safe.
“CAB is one way to achieve the plans of the BJP. It will affect trade, customs, it is a plague that will sweep over the identity of the indigenous people,” he said.
The North East Forum of Indigenous People (NEFIP) which is an umbrella organization of different social organizations in the North East has decided to revive the opposition to the CAB after Home Minister Amit Shah vowed to bring back the CAB in the coming Parliament session.
Kharjahrin informed that they will continue to agitate and urged the Chief Minister Conrad Sangma to voice his opposition to CAB again.