SHILLONG: The North East Students Organisation (NESO) will soon meet to discuss ways to take the movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) forward.
Protests against CAA by civil societies in Meghalaya and in other parts of the region have over the past six months been hampered by the pandemic.
It may be mentioned that NESO had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against the Act and the last hearing on the matter was held on January 19.
NESO chairman, Samuel Jyrwa said the Supreme Court thereafter had not fixed any hearing even as the apex court has separated the case for Assam and the rest of India.
Admitting there were no large-scale protests because of the outbreak of COVID-19, he however said that protests have started in Assam on a low key.
“Due to the situation, we did not have any meeting and we feel our movement has been hampered by the pandemic,” he said, adding that the NESO will soon have a meeting in this regard. “It is a matter of grave concern and the Supreme Court has taken all these things into consideration,” he added. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by Parliament in December 2019, providing a path to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities who had fled the country from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before December 2014.
The passage of the legislation caused large-scale protests throughout the country including Assam, Meghalaya and other northeastern states.
Many states in the region even saw violent demonstrations over fears that granting Indian citizenship to refugees and immigrants will lead to loss of their “political rights, culture and land rights” and motivate further migration from Bangladesh.
