Protests over Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in three North-East states

Itanagar/Kohima/Aizawl: Lending support to the voices of dissent over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, hundreds of student activists staged demonstrations on Monday across three northeast states. The apex bodies of students' unions in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland organised sit-ins this morning in their respective state capitals, demanding immediate scrapping of the proposed legislation.

The protesters also submitted memoranda to the governors in their states, seeking their intervention in the matter.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955. A key amendment in the bill seeks to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of their residence in India.

In Itanagar, members of the All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU) said they would continue the stir till the time the government concedes to their demands.

AAPSU President Hawa Bagang said the Centre had no regard for the indigenous people of the region.

"The proposed bill is one among the many examples that show the lawmakers in our country have no or very little regard for the indigenous populace of Arunachal Pradesh and the entire northeast region," he said.

The AAPSU would organize more such democratic movements, under the aegis of Northeast Students' Organization (NESO), in the interest of the indigenous people, Bawang asserted. The Bangladeshi refugees, who have been residing illegally in our state, would be asked to leave, he said.

"We will soon serve notices to all the Bangladeshis, who have sneaked into our state, after the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft was released in Assam," the AAPSU president said.