Shah plans key north-east meet Celebrations in N-E as bill is set to lapse
NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah will meet the party’s leaders from the country’s northeast in Guwahati on February 17 amid protests in the region over the proposed amendment to the citizenship law.
The BJP’S allies in the region are upset over the amendment that seeks to make it easier for non-muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to get Indian citizenship. They say it would encourage more migrations to the region, where a sixyear agitation in Assam sought expulsion of Bangladeshi immigrants irrespective of their religion in the 1980s.
A BJP leader said Shah has invited BJP’S office bearers and chief ministers from the region to discuss the strategy for the 2019 parliamentary election. He added Shah would discuss how to build a campaign around the citizenship amendment.
“We will seek feedback from our leaders from different states and finalise a strategy on how to go about the [Citizenship Amendment] bill. We might make it an election issue in the northeast,” the BJP leader said.
The bill is set to lapse on June 3 as it could not be tabled in Rajya Sabha, which was adjourned sine die on Wednesday.
The Bjp-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 10 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the northeast in 2014. It has defeated the Congress in all northeastern states and is expecting to win 20-21 seats.
BJP suffered a setback when Asom Gana Parishad quit the NDA over the proposed amendment. Some other allies, too, have expressed their reservations over it.
Assam’s finance minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday regretted the bill could not be passed in Rajya Sabha and called is a defeat for Assam. “Without the bill, 17 [assembly] constituencies will go to Bangladeshi Muslims,” he told journalists in Assam’s Dudhnoi. “Who will save the [Assamese] community?” GUWAHATI: Crackers were burst and sweets were distributed on the streets of Guwahati and other parts of the north-east soon after the Rajya Sabha was adjourned sine die [with no appointed date for resumption] without passing the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.
The legislation, which sought to grant citizenship to religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, had been passed by the Lok Sabha last month. Now, the bill is now likely to lapse, as according to the Rajya Sabha Legislative Procedure, “a Bill which is passed by Lok Sabha and is pending in Rajya Sabha lapses on the dissolution of Lok Sabha”. The term of the present Lok Sabha ends on June 3.
The Citizenship Bill has triggered widespread protests in the north-east amid concern that it could dilute the indigenous identity by accelerating demographic changes. Many of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s allies in the northeast, including chief ministers of two Bjp-ruled states, had expressed reservations.
In Assam, where a Bjp-led coalition is in power, nearly 100 organisations and groups belonging to indigenous communities have been protesting against the bill for several months. The BJP’S main ally, the Asom Gana Parishad had withdrawn support to the coalition last month over the legislation. “It is a historic day and a victory for democracy. Due to the protests, the government didn’t dare to table the legislation,” said All Assam Students’ Union general secretary, Lurinjyoti Gogoi.
Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh who is heading a Bjp-led coalition, tweeted Wednesday, “On behalf of the people of Northeast & in particular Manipur, I would like to profusely thank Honble PM @narendramodi ji, BJP Pres @amitshah ji and HM @rajnathsingh ji for not tabling the CAB...!”
In Tripura, Gautam Das, general secretary of the opposition CPI (Marxist) said, “The result of prolonged protests... in the northeast was reflected in the Rajya Sabha today.”