'BJP may promulgate ordinance on citizenship bill before polls'

Kohima: The opposition Naga People's Front (NPF) on Monday expressed apprehension that the BJP led central government might promulgate an ordinance on the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill just before the Lok Sabha election to strengthen the votebank of the saffron party.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is not acceptable and it would be opposed tooth and nail in whichever form it comes in future, NPF spokesperson Achumbemo Kikon said.

"The BJP government, which is hell bent in implementing the Bill, would try to bring it as an ordinance just before the elections as the BJP is trying to increase its vote base," Kikon said at a panel discussion on the Bill.

Reiterating his party's stand to oppose the Bill till the end, he claimed that Assam and Tripura have been facing the consequences of illegal immigrants as they have out-numbered the indigenous inhabitants.

Kikon said the Centre is planning to "dump illegal immigrants into the North East" and "granting citizenship on religious grounds is wrong."

The contentious Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to grant Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12, even if they don't possess any proper document.