CLP protests at Delhi on Naga issue, CAB
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 22 2019: Many Congress legislators of the State led by ex-Chief Minister Okram Ibobi today staged a protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi against any negative impact of Naga solution on Manipur and re-introduction of Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) 2016 in Parliament.

Meanwhile Chief Minister N Biren left Imphal for New Delhi today to discuss the issues of Naga solution and the CAB.

Notably, the CLP team has been camping at Delhi for the last several days.

CLP protests at Delhi on Naga issue, CAB

They have been lobbying hard with Central leaders of different political parties to ensure the status quo of Manipur in the face of imminent solution to the Naga peace talks and also to see that CAB is not passed in the Parliament.

Apart from staging a protest demonstration, the Congress legislators also submitted two memoranda to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on CAB and the Naga peace talks.

The primary objective of CAB is to enable Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh without valid documents to acquire India citizenship by fast tracking the process of naturalisation.

The proposed amendment seeks to reduce the minimum domicile period to six years.

The Bill violates the secular principle of the Constitution of India by seeking to grant citizenship based on religion.

It fails to identify and separate political and economic migrants, the memorandum asserted.

The Bill also poses immense threats to the existence of indigenous people of North East India, their languages, and socio-economic structures.

If it is passed in the Parliament, the illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries would pour into the region and would become genuine Indian citizens.

The North East region would be transformed into a dumping ground of Bangladeshi immigrants.

This would badly affect the already fragile socio-economic and political setup of the region, read the memorandum.

If the Bill is passed and becomes an Act, it would negate the long stranding demand of the people of Manipur to identify and deport foreigners with 1951 as base year.

Because, a Bangladeshi Hindu foreigner could become a citizen of India if he was residing in India for the period of six years, added the memorandum.

Since 6 years would be made eligibility criteria for becoming a citizen of India, the base year of 1951, as demanded by the people of Manipur for identification of foreigners would be irrelevant.

This would certainly plunge the State into chaos and anarchy, warned the memorandum.

Pointing out that Article 14 of the Constitution guarantees equality to all persons, citizens irrespective of caste, creed and religion, the Congress memorandum decried that differentiating between people on the ground of religion and regions would be in violation of the Constitution of India.

Asserting that if CAB becomes an Act it would bring catastrophic impacts on demography, language, socio-economic and political structure of the country in general and the North East, specially Manipur in particular, the CLP Manipur, through the memorandum appealed to the Union Government not to re-introduce the CAB.

On the Naga peace talks and its solution, the CLP memorandum pointed out that Manipur is inhabited by different communities namely Meiteis, Nagas, Kukis, Hmars, Paites, Meitei Muslims etc and still live together peacefully.

It then categorically stated that not only the geographical boundary but also the administrative and financial power of Manipur should not be disturbed.

Any move to disturb the status quo of Manipur will bring a lot of unrest and even communal conflicts among people of different communities, it warned.

While quoting unconfirmed sources that autonomous territorial council may be set up for Nagas of Manipur, the memorandum conveyed that CLP Manipur would oppose any such move as it would lead to formation of a new Union Territory or State which means division of the State of Manipur.

It also categorically stated that no pan-Naga cultural body should be set up as a Constitutional or a statutory body.

Reminding about the Ministry of Home Affairs' announcement of October 31 that all stake holders would be consulted, the memorandum appealed to the Prime Minister to enlist some members of CLP while consulting stake holders of Manipur as Congress party is the main Opposition party which won maximum number of seats in the last State Assembly election.