CAB will turn indigenous Assamese into minority, warns Upamanyu Hazarika

Guwahati, March 25, 2019:

Senior advocate and Independent candidate of Guwahati Lok Sabha Constituency, Upamanyu Hazarika has again expressed his concerns about the implementation of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. In a statement released on Monday, he said: “In an interview published in a newspaper from New Delhi, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma has revealed that - he is in discussion with political parties in the Northeast to make the Citizenship Amendment Bill more acceptable and include safeguards in the Bill. It is a matter of shame that our leaders who are indigenous, elected on the indigenous vote on the promise of protecting indigenous interests only display enthusiasm for establishing foreigners.”

“There is one very important issue in the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the grant of citizenship by birth to virtually all children born of foreigners until December 3, 2004. This has huge implications for Assam that where the UPA government in 2004 came up with figures of 50 lakh infiltrators in Assam, the NDA in 2016 gave figures of 80 lakh and with such a large number of foreigners, children born of them are enough to turn indigenous into a minority”, he added.

“Not only will they turn indigenous into a minority but they also jeopardize the future of the new generation of indigenous children - whether it be in terms of seats in higher educational institutions, jobs or any form of livelihood. It is unfortunate that today when all political parties in Assam have indigenous leaders at their helm and occupy such position by virtue of their being representatives of the indigenous people, they only serve the interests of foreigners and vote bank politics. It is a matter of shame for us that leaders who have been elected on the indigenous cause for protecting the rights of indigenous people display no hesitation in betraying their own people”, he added.