The Bharatiya Janata Party’s unit in Assam said that it wanted certain changes in the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, News18 reported on Sunday. The party’s state unit chief said they had sent suggested changes to the legislation before the government makes a final decision about it.
“We support the Citizenship Amendment Bill but we want changes,” Assam’s BJP President Ranjit Das said. “There was a plan to insert some clauses which may not be understood by the people in Assam who are always emotional. It’s still a draft and the Cabinet is yet to take a final decision. We have offered our suggestions and will do so again.”
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend a 1955 law to grant citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians from the Muslim-majority nations of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan if they have lived in India for six years. It had been passed by the previous Lok Sabha but was not tabled in the Rajya Sabha. The bill lapsed after the term of the Lok Sabha ended in May, but was not introduced in the Budget Session in July.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday and Saturday held discussions with politicians, student groups, and civil society bodies from Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh on the proposed legislation, according to PTI. On Saturday, the chief ministers of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya attended the meeting along with Union minister Kiren Rijiju and several MPs.
“Union Home Minister Sri Amit Shah on Friday consulted political parties and civil society organisations of Tripura and Mizoram for over four hours on proposed CAB,” Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted on Saturday. “Today he will discuss it with delegations from Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Things are moving in right direction.”
Shah held the meetings after protests were organised across the North East on November 18 against the Narendra Modi-led government’s decision to introduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill during the Winter Session of Parliament. Another meeting is scheduled on December 3.
In October, during Shah’s visit to Mizoram, he told Chief Minister Zoramthanga that there would a clause in the legislation to exempt states where Inner Line Permit, or ILP, is prevalent. This included only the states of Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs in 2013 had said the Inner Line Permit regime was meant to “prevent settlement of other Indian nationals, in order to protect the indigenous/tribal population”.
The Inner Line Permit, which flows from the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, was put in place in 1873 by the colonial government. It was not meant to protect vulnerable tribal communities but to exclude them.
An unidentified BJP worker in Assam said that “intra-party politics” was also another reason the senior members of the saffron party did not want to oppose the bill. “The two lobbies of the chief minister [Sarbananda Sonowal] and Assam’s Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma are always on a game of one-upmanship and they will not dare to annoy the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh],” the worker said.
NESO calls for ILP in all northeastern states
The North East Students’ Organisation released a statement after meeting Amit Shah on Saturday. “NESO reiterated its stand against CAB on the ground that the bill is against the interest of the indigenous people of the North East region; the Government of India should understand that the indigenous people of [the] North East are a minority in all front – ethnically, linguistically and religiously,” the statement read.
The group urged the entire North East region to be viewed as “one whole block” and said that if some states are affected due to the CAB proposed legislation then the rest will also be face its impact soon after. “NESO demands that instead of imposing CAB, the GOI [Government of India] should rather implement ILP in all the states of NE, exempt the NE region from the purview of Indo Nepal treaty of Friendship, 1950, implementation of NRC [National Register of Citizens] to all the NE states with a base year which might differ depending upon the unique history of each state, constitutional safeguards with rights over land and natural resources amongst others,” the statement said.
The student organisation urged the home minister not to go ahead with the current amendment of the legislation, and to respect the sentiments of the indigenous population in the region.
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