Govt should read warning signs and put passage of Citizenship Amendment Bill on hold -Sanjoy Hazarika

-The Economic Times

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, passed earlier this month in the Lok Sabha, has created a furore across Assam and other states across India. In Assam, a key coalition partner of the ruling BJP, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), quit the state government, accusing the Centre of being anti-Assam.

Anti-Delhi rage is not new, whether for AGP or other regional parties in Assam. It’s been part of the political landscape from pre-Independence. Delhi may see itself as an easy scapegoat, but in numerous cases, as in this one, it appears to have misread the issue.

As the tumult grows, it should be pointed out here that the Bill is still not yet law, as it has yet to be passed by the Rajya Sabha. Before analysing the impact of the Bill — and why the northeast has reacted as it has — it would be useful to examine a few basic facts and to review the positions of BJP’s own governments in these states and its allies, in their own words.

Thus, the Mizo National Front (MNF) government in Mizoram, setting its eyes on the national level, said it would make concerted efforts to defeat the amendment in the Rajya Sabha, where the Bill is to be tabled next month. This shows the depth and sharpness of the fault lines. The region has long seen opposition to what is perceived as ‘illegal settlement’, which has stoked fear and anger among small communities.

What has emerged is that BJP is itself a divided house — Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh and his Cabinet have opposed it, as have BJP cabinet ministers in Meghalaya. The responses are borne out of anxieties, unassuaged by statements from Delhi, that Hindu settlers would flock to these small states, however unlikely this may seem. The Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955, which prescribes the four main methods of acquiring citizenship: by birth, descent, registration and naturalisation. The new Bill says that Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — but not Muslims — who had come illegally from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan would not be treated as illegal immigrants.

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