North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) on Monday submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing the Centre’s decision to reintroduce CAB.
“NESO is submitting this memorandum to express our dismay and displeasure that the government of India has again intended to introduce the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament,” the letter said.
In January-February this year there was a widespread protest against the Centre’s move to pass the contentious bill at the Rajya Sabha after getting a nod in the Lok Sabha.
The bill, however, was not tabled after the sentiments of the people of the region were taken into account.
“Our attention has again been drawn to various announcements that your government is planning to bring back the contentious bill in this coming session of Parliament,” the memorandum added.
“We as indigenous people of the Northeast vehemently oppose such a move,” NESO reiterated.
NESO in the memorandum further said, “The entire Northeast region is infested with foreigners from erstwhile East Pakistan.”
“They have infiltrated into and polluted every aspect of our social life. The politicians have supported them which threaten the identity of the indigenous people of the region,” NESO added.
“Every state of the region have suffered badly due to the illegal flow of the foreigners without any hindrance,” it reiterated.
“Northeast has carried the burden of Hindu refugees who fled to India during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war,” NESO in the memorandum said.
“CAB is again an attempt to impose the burden of the post-1971 Hindu Bangladeshis in the entire region, which is not justified, to say the least,” it added.
“Northeast is not a dumping ground for illegal Bangladeshis and to us ‘a foreigner is a foreigner irrespective of his religion’,” the apex student body of the region reiterated.
The memorandum also added that CAB will nullify the Assam Accord.
“NESO supports the base year of March 25, 1971, for identifying foreigners as enshrined in the Assam Accord,” it said.
“We oppose the objective of the proposed bill and it should not be adopted by the Parliament under any circumstances,” it reiterated.
“Such an undesirable step by Parliament will once again agitate the entire Northeast region. We all have a responsibility to avoid such a potentiality,” NESO said.
It further said that the Centre doesn’t understand the problems and aspirations of the region and that Northeast always remains at a distance from the Centre.
“The intended Bill is the latest example that the lawmakers of the country have no regard for the future of the indigenous peoples of the Northeast,” the NESO added.
“In a straightforward language we totally oppose the intended Bill and we demand that the Bill should not be brought back,” the student body reiterated.
“Instead, the Inner Line Permit system should be introduced for the entire region and National Register of Citizens (NRC) with a Base Year for each state should be implemented,” the NESO memorandum added.