Know More : The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and it’s impact on Assam

Guwahati, January 9, 2019

1. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, proposed by the BJP government in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016, is aimed at amending the Citizenship Act, 1955 to provide citizenship to illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who are of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian extraction.

2. The Bill is completely based on religion and is biased towards a particular religion as the bill is anti-religion, anti-indigenous and anti-constitutional, according to All Assam Students Union and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and many others.

3. The Bill is expected to turn Assam into a dumping ground as around 1.70 crore Hindus living in Bangladesh are likely to be granted citizenship in the State, according to KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi. Assam and its neighboring states have been reeling under the pressure of illegal immigrants for years now and adding more immigrants ‘legally’ will not help at all.

4. The Bill allows citizenship to people coming to India till December 31, 2014. This violates the Assam Accord agreement which states that anyone entering Assam from a foreign land after March 24, 1971 will not be provided citizenship and the proposed Bill breaches the constitutional provisions of the Assam accord.

5. If the Bill is implemented, people fear that it will threaten the people of Assam’s existence as it is a bigger socio-economic threat. It will infringe the constitutional safeguards of the people of Assam.

6. Assam is under the process of National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is to identify illegal immigrants settled in the State post March 24, 1971. Implementing this Bill will nullify this process and waste millions in money and manpower used for years to get it completed.

7. A Bandh was called in the state on January 8 to protest the decision of the government to pass the Bill in the Lok Sabha on the same date by North East Students Organization (NESO), All Assam Students Union (AASU) and several other organizations. Assamese people marched hand-in-hand in order to have their voices heard. Some protests took an ugly turn, though, as acts of vandalism were also reported in many nooks and corners of the state. However, it was eventually passed in the Lok Sabha by evening .

8. Protests reached national capital Delhi where a historic ‘naked protest’ on 7th January, held at Vijay Chowk to condemn the Bill. Seven youths bared it all to mark their presence and take a stand against the controversial Bill.

9. Students also marked their dissent for the Bill with the Cotton University , Dibrugarh University Students Union calling for a statewide boycott of classes. Students from Delhi Universities (DU, Jamia Milia, JNU etc) also showed their dissent as they held demonstrations decrying the Bill today at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

10. All states that share a border with Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan are bound to be affected with migrants expected to pour into the countries.

11. The Bill was scheduled to be passed in the Rajya Sabha on January 9, 2019, but in light of the protests and strong opposition to the Bill, plans to implement it is likely to be shelved indefinitely.

12. Assam’s Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal, who came into power under the promises of protecting ‘Jati, Mati, Bheti’ (Community, Land and Boundary) and also he has been considered as a ‘Jatiya Nayak’ (Regional Hero) after scrapping the IMDT Act (The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) (IMDT) Act was an Act of the Parliament of India enacted in 1983 by the Indira Gandhi government. It was struck down by the Supreme Court of India in 2005 in Sarbananda Sonowal v. Union of India.), faces the ire of the people and the same Nayak is being turned as ‘Kaklongkita Nayak’ (Khalnayak) now by different regional organizations and people of Assam.