The Centre’s move to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries has ignited strong protests in Assam.
When it comes to defending cul-ture and identity, few people are more fierce than the Assamese. And, they are up in arms, as the Centre’s proposal to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, will grant citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Christians and Parsis from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The move has also created a deep divide between the two valleys in the state— the Assamese-dominated Brahmaputra valley and the Bengali-dominated Barak valley.
Fearing that it would go out of hand, the Centre sent a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) on May 7 to take stock of the people’s mood before taking a decision on the proposed bill. Headed by Rajendra Agrawal, the BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Meerut, the 16-member committee includes four MPs from Assam. The JPC was hit by a wave of protests when it held a public hearing on its first stop at Guwahati. The committee visited other parts of the northeast as well, and is expected to submit its report soon. Interestingly, just before the JPC was to reach Shillong, the Meghalaya government—headed by the National People’s Party leader Conrad Sangma; the BJP is a coalition partner—decided to oppose the bill.
This story is from the June 10, 2018 edition of THE WEEK.
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This story is from the June 10, 2018 edition of THE WEEK.
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