GUWAHATI: Members of People’s Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM) and Mizoram Peoples Conference (MPC) staged a peaceful street demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) during Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Aizawl on Saturday.
Several members of the two parties stood around the kilometre long street between AR Ground and Treasury Square holding banners and placards with messages such as “Leave Mizoram and NE states outside CAB”, “Don’t try and exploit our land, No hidden agenda please” among others.
PRISM president Vanlalruata told The Shillong Times that the demonstration was peaceful with no untoward incident reported.
“Both parties welcomed the Union home minister and submitted separate memorandums requesting him to exempt Mizoram from the ambit of the Citizenship Amendment Act, ” he said.
The bill proposes to grant citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists. Jains, Christians and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had taken refuge in India prior to December 31, 2014. It was passed in Lok Sabha earlier this year but later lapsed because it could not be tabled in the Rajya Sabha.
The BJP-led central government had promised in its election manifesto to bring CAB even as the party has committed to uphold tribal laws and legislations.
The home minister had met the chief ministers of all Northeast states at the NEDA meeting here last month and assured them that the bill would not affect the existing laws and constitutional provisions protecting different identities, cultures and customs of the region