SHILLONG: The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), which is spearheading the movement against Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, has termed Wednesday as a “Black Day” for the indigenous people of the North East after the Rajya Sabha finally passed the contentious bill.
In a statement on Wednesday, NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa said that the NESO representing eight major students’ movements of the seven Northeastern states “condemns the sinister ploy of the Government of India to reduce the indigenous people of the North East to a minority in their own land” by rewarding the illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh who have illegally entered the region by granting them Indian citizenship.
He said that the government instead of detaining and deporting these illegal infiltrators is granting them citizenship. This will only encourage more infiltration from Bangladesh since the North East shares a long border of about 1,741km with the country.
“The approval of this contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 by the Union Cabinet on the 4th December 2019, the passage of this Bill in the Lok Sabha on the 9th December 2019 and finally the passage of this Bill in the Rajya Sabha on the 11th December 2019 is spelling a bleak future for the indigenous peoples of the North East. This is another political injustice perpetrated by the Government of India on the microscopic indigenous communities of North East. NESO terms this day, the 11th December, on which the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 was finally passed by the Rajya Sabha as a “Black Day” for the indigenous people of the North East,” the statement said.
