Shah holds talks with Northeast stakeholders on CAB
Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday held discussions here with Chief Ministers, leaders of political parties and civil society organisations of Northeast states on the contours of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. The meetings with Shah were attended by Chief Ministers of Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh Sarbananda Sonowal, Conrad Sangma and Pema Khandu respectively.
Sources present during the discussions told The Sunday Guardian that Shah assured the leaders that northeastern states with Inner Line Permit (ILP) and tribal areas under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution will be exempted from the purview of the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
The Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, which includes Article 244(2) and Article 275, deals with the administration of tribal areas in four Northeast states, namely Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Manipur. Three northeastern states—nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram— have the ILP system which ensures that no one, including Indian citizens, can enter these states without prior official travel documents being issued.
Speaking to the media after discussions with the Home Minister, Rajya Sabha MP Biswajit Daimary of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), said, “Home Minister Amit Shah briefed all the leaders about the
Citizenship Amendment Bill and we are convinced and satisfied after the assurance of the Home minister.” Daimary also said that there is nothing to worry about the Bill as it will do no harm to indigenous people of Assam.
“Amit Shah has also assured that Clause 6 of the 1985 Assam Accord will be implemented to safeguard the interests of the indigenous population of Assam,” he added.
Clause 6 of the Assam Accord reads as follows: “Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.”
The Central government has already constituted a high-level committee to implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord under the chairmanship of Gauhati High Court Judge (retd) Biplab Kumar Sarma. The committee is likely to submit its report in the next two to three months and soon after the submission of its report, the Centre will implement it, a source said.
Saturday’s meetings with Shah were important as people of Northeast states have been opposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill which they think will pose a threat to the indigenous culture of the region. Through the Bill, the Centre is seeking to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who come to India due to religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, even if they don’t possess proper documents.
Chennai/new Delhi: The National Investigation Agency
(NIA) on Saturday carried out searches at two locations in connection with a case earlier this regarding an alleged conspiracy by the Islamic State (ISIS) Daish module in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. An NIA spokesperson in Delhi said that the anti-terror probe agency carried out searches at two locations, one each in Thanjavur district and Tiruchirapalli city of Tamil Nadu based on warrants issued by NIA Special Court(ernakulam). The official said that during searches at the houses of two associates of the arrested accused persons, namely Alavudeen, a resident of Thanjavur and S. Sarfudeen resident of Tiruchirapalli.
The agency seized several documents including two laptops, six mobile phones, eleven SIM cards, one pen drive, one hard disc, one memory card, five CDS/ DVDS, one axe besides from their premises, which will be submitted to the NIA Special Court. “The suspects are being examined to ascertain their association with the arrested accused persons besides their involvement in any unlawful activity, intended at furthering the objectives of ISIS/ Daish,” the spokesperson added. The NIA has registered the case taking suo-motu on May 30 against six accused persons from Coimbatore, based on the information that the accused persons and their associates have been propagating the ideology of the proscribed terrorist organisation on social media with the intention of recruiting youth into the ISIS/ Daish and carrying out terrorist attacks in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.