Party to launch mass awareness against contentious legislation
GUWAHATI: Despite assurances by various Centre that the “modified” Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) 2016 would preserve the Northeast’s identity, parties and organisations in the region are not convinced.
Irked by the Centre’s resolve to bring the proposed CAB in Parliament, Meghalaya regional party, Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement said on Saturday that it would be launching a state-wide mass awareness programme in the coming week against the contentious legislation.
“The attempt of the BJP government at the Centre to forcefully implement the contentious CAB against the will of the people for a second time is a clear sign of dictatorship. The central executive committee meeting of the party has strongly opposed such a move,” Thomas Passah, the vice president of KHNAM’s central executive committee, told The Shillong Times on Saturday.
“Therefore, we will be launching a mass awareness programme in the state, to let the people know the impact the CAB on our identity with the objective that the people know the importance to join hands in protest against it. We would also appeal for unity amongst NGOs and political parties, in principle and not on political lines against CAB,” Passah said.
NEDA convener and Assam minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma had on Friday reiterated in a function that “the old draft of CAB will change.” “The new draft will give more emphasis on the development of the unique culture of the Northeast and on the identity of the people,” Sarma said.
It may be mentioned that the contentious bill has already evoked widespread criticism among student groups and some parties in the Northeast states for yet another round, with apex students union of the region, NESO pledging not to accept CAB in any form.
“With such attempt of the BJP government, it will not be wrong to say that the present government at the Centre is anti-secular, anti-constitutional with the intention to suppress the minority community in the country,” Passah said.
“The BJP government seems to be firm and confident on implementation of CAB. So we would also like to let it know that we are also firm and confident to fight, this is not the first time our existence has been put to test and we know how to protect ourselves and our identity,” he said.
The KHNAM leader further said it is still not clear whether the state government is with the BJP government or with the people of the state with respect to CAB. “We are yet to see a clear stand and toughness of the state government against the BJP government on CAB,” Passah said.
He further appealed to the regional parties, Independent MLAs supporting the NPP Government to now act on behalf of the people of the state. “The people of the state rightfully look up to these 60 representatives. Now the question is whether these representatives will live up to the aspirations of the people or not,” he said.
“KHNAM has always demanded a mechanism to curb illegal immigration which has been one of the long pending issues. Therefore, we have always said there cannot be CAB without ILP. Now the amendment of the Meghalaya Residents’ Safety and Security Act is still not clear and whether it is will be able to curb illegal immigration and address the influx problem in the state, is yet to be determined,” Passah said.