SHILLONG: Political parties and the North East Students’ Union (NESO) have strongly objected to the move of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to approve the draft Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in its present form.
NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa said on Thursday the JPC’s move was despite the fact that many NGOs had protested and submitted their representation to the committee against the bill.
Accusing the JPC of doing mere formality without any seriousness on the matter, Jyrwa said the approval shows that it has already made up its mind on the matter before hearing the stakeholders.
“It shows the attitude of the central government towards the indigenous people of the North East and this will further alienate the people of the region,” he added.
Stating that the NESO “has taken the matter seriously”, Jyrwa said the organisation would meet soon to chalk out its next course of action.
On the other hand, political advisor to the Chief Minister and senior UDP leader Allantry Dkhar said the approval only shows that the Centre is not concerned about the region.
“It is their intention that the North East gets swamped by foreigners from across the border,” he said, adding that the party and the state government had expressed its dissent over the bill and it would continue to do so.
The bill seeks to grant citizenship to people from minority communities — Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian — from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don’t possess any proper document. Muslims are a notable omission from the list on the ground that they constitute the majority communities in the three neighbouring nations.
The BJP-dominated JPC headed by Rajendra Agarwal cleared the bill after most opposition amendments were rejected by 6-13 votes. Last year, the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government had opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
