ATSUM comes out against CAB
Source: The Sangai Express / Newmai News Network
Imphal, February 12 2019:
While expressing its solidarity towards the indigenous people of the North-East region of India "who felt betrayed by the hasty attempt the BJP-led government to enact the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) which envisaged to award citizenship to illegal migrants who are teeming in each and every corners of the seven-sister states", the All Tribal Student Union, Manipur (ATSUM) has urged the people to carry on the struggle until and unless the Central government withdraws the Bill in "view of the demographic threat it poses for the people of this frontier states" .
According to the ape tribal student body, the CAB which was introduced in the Lower House of the Parliament on July 19, 2016, and after completion of all procedural scrutiny and formalities, it was again tabled in the Lower House in January 2019 which was subsequently passed.
It also said that, the aftermath witnessed "serious" opposition from the North-East indigenous people cutting across political affiliations and spectrums.
"The North-East Students' Organisation (NESO), a conglomerate of the seven states' students' organization, launched unrelenting agitation asking for the withdrawal of the Bill, which continues till today", it added.
The apex tribal student body then said that the introduction of the Bill itself was fraught with inconsistencies, "and it is very much a negation of the secular fabric of the Indian-nation which prided itself to be the most pluralistic and tolerant country among all the nation of the world" .
It added that the BJP at the fag-end of its tenure, "with an eye to vote bank politics, has been doing everything at its disposal to polarise the people of India into 'this and that religion', and by means of fair or foul, constitutional or unconstitutional so that it will keep them in power" .
The ATSUM then alleged that the "attempt to dichotomise" one particular community based on religious ground is unacceptable and has no place in the postmodern world.
"If the secular fabric of India, the only strand which has been binding us all together irrespective of caste and religious affiliations, is not respected then one cannot help but wonder whether India is slowly inclining to a 'Hindu-Rashtra' as assiduously promoted by the RSS, the muscle and mentor of BJP", the tribal student body further said, while adding, "In this context, the CAB is divisive and retrograde in character hence should be immediately scrape, once for all" .
It then stated that the timing of the introduction of the Bill has flummoxed one and all "since it was done when general election of the country is around the comer and with BJP at the receiving end of defeat in many of the recent state elections whipping up religious sentiments must be the only trump card available to its kitty, that is, divide and rule".
The ATSUM also said that the North-East people who had, for centuries, maintained their "perfect isolation" from the mainland India was immune from any conquest, "and as such, for millenniums maintained their distinct identity and ethos, uninfluenced from the world outside" .
The ATSUM further stated that it was only the "marauding" British which had brought the North-Easterners under its sway but chose to keep it out of the mainstream administration owing to the intricate nature and ethos of the people here.
"Attempts to interfere with the culture, traditions, administration and customary practices of the people here had been met with ferocity and this was the reason why the mighty British chose to keep their hands off in the affairs of the people here.
This time too it will be met with equal ferocity.
The legacy of partition and the persecution of those minorities in their mother country should not be made a pretext for transforming NE into a dumping ground of immigrants," the apex tribal student body added.
The ATSUM then urged all the indigenous people of the NE to persist with their agitation until justice is delivered.
Comment
