Controversy Over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016

After months of peaceful condition prevailing in Assam, there has been some excitement again in Assam, this time following the present Union government’s latest reported insistence to go through with the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 even in spite of stiff opposition to it from almost the whole lot of people in the State. This reaction by them is reminiscent of the recent times when the political situation got charged with periodic agitational programmes by different political parties and several leading organisations such as the AASU, All Assam Krisak Sangram Samity, to note a few, to protest against the Centre’s hasty decision on several vital, concerning issues in the State, like selling out its oil fields through auctions etc., a contentious issue that had of late led to social unrest.

- Dwaipayan Dasgupta

Honestly speaking , 69 years of the nation’s independence is a prolonged spell of time. During the period, enacting uniform legislations on Citizenship or amendments to it or any other laws for a democratic republic like India, in a reasonable timeline should not be a tall order. Therefore, while doing the exercise of amendment to the Citizenship Act, what should we keep in mind is that this law is not linguistic specific or language- specific. But what has in fact been a major source of disillusionment with the present Union government of the leadership of several political parties in the State including the AGP, is their insistence to go through with the Citizenship Bill. They fear the Bill, if passed, may negate a few vital provisions of the historic Assam Accord, if not, all. They also apprehend that the Bill may even violate several recent decisions or, the judgements of the Apex court pertaining to citizenship. Yes the proposed amendment to the Bill may transgress some of them on this count. But if the government wants to deem it imperative to amend any provision of the constitution to meet any exigency of the emerging situation through Parliament , it can. For instance, till date as many as 100 times the constitution has been amended, evidently, because of the requirements of the changing situation. Indeed, it will definitely be frustrating if the Citizenship Bill dilutes the provisions of the Accord, or, for that matter, some important verdicts of the Supreme court on the Citizenship.

However, the all-important question in this context that is currently palpably uppermost in inquisitive minds is: what is the one single crucial reason for political outfits and leading students bodies like the AASU, to vehemently oppose the Bill? It is true that the reason that is assigned by them is quite plausible and, so convincing.