NESO protests Citizenship Bill, NIFJ seeks abortion
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 12 2018:
The North East Students' Organisation (NESO) today staged a protest demonstration at Dughali Pukhri, Guwahati against the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 which purportedly seeks to grant Indian citizenship to illegal immigrants from different foreign countries.
The protest demonstration was participated by student organisations of seven Northeastern States affiliated to NESO namely; All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union, All Assam Students' Union, All Manipur Students' Union, Naga Students' Federation, Khasi Students' Union, Garo Students' Union, Mizo Zirlai Pawl and Twipra Students Federation.
Altogether 30 volunteers of AMSU led by vice-president Laishram Peter participated in the protest demonstration.
|
A team of NESO which included the AMSU team held a meeting with the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016 at Shillong recently.
Another meeting was held at Guwahati yesterday where key officials of JPC were also present and NESO expressed strong objection against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.A memorandum highlighting stiff opposition against the Bill was also submitted to Joint Committee on Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 Chairman Rajendra Agarwal.
According to Laishram Peter, the Bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nepal.
The Bill once passed would render the Assam Accord as well as National Register of Citizens (NRC) toothless, he said.
Notably, NRC adopted 1971 as base year for identification of illegal migrants.
Peter said that the Bill is a conspiracy to wipe out the indigenous peoples of the whole North East region who belong to the Mongoloid stock.
Speaking at the protest demonstration, Laishram Peter called upon all the students fraternity of the North East region to fight against the Bill and work collectively to enforce Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) or a similar mechanism in all the Northeastern States' where any such mechanism has not been enforced currently.
Meanwhile, the Northeast India Federation of Journalists (NIFJ) has expressed grave concern over the Government of India's move to amend the Citizenship Act so as to confer citizenship to all refugees belonging to the religious Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain communities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan despite strong opposition from the North East region.
The Centre's move Will jeopardize the survival and very existence of the small indigenous communities of the Northeastern States, NIFJ asserted.
While strongly condemning the Central Government's move, the NIFJ has demanded the Central Government to scrap the proposed amendment.
It also welcomed the Meghalaya Cabinet's decision of opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 and urged all other State Governments to follow suit and oppose the Bill so as to safeguard the identity of its people.