North-East oppose the Citizenship Amendment Bill

What to know?

• A total of 11 political parties, including 10 from the North-East and Janata Dal (United), unanimously opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• Majority of the participants in the meeting were the BJP’s allies, which include some ruling parties in the North-East.

Delegation to PM

• Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma was the convenor of the meeting held at Guwahati. Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga was also present.
• The political parties plan to send a delegation to the Prime Minister and the President to convey their views on the issue.
• Zoramthanga described the Bill, which has been cleared in the Lok Sabha and will be placed in the Rajya Sabha in the coming session, as “dangerous” for the people of north-eastern States.
• His party Mizo National Front is part of the BJP-led North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).
• Atul Bora, President of Asom Gana Parishad, which just broke alliance with the BJP in Assam, said his party had tried its best to convince the BJP that the Bill was against the interest of the people in the region.

Issue-based alliance

• Addressing the press conference, Sangma said the alliance was “issue-based” and not “politically motivated”.
• He said the united voice was put up as an effort to convince the Centre to abort the proposed amendment.
• Most of the north-eastern State governments have opposed the Bill. The latest entry to this list was Nagaland. On January 28, the Nagaland Cabinet rejected the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
• Nagaland enjoys protection under Article 371(A). However, they rejected the Bill in solidarity with the other north-eastern States.

Chin refugees from Myanmar in Citizenship Bill

• Eight organisations of the Chakma community submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking the inclusion of Chin refugees in India by further amending the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
• The Joint Parliamentary Committee that submitted its recommendations to the Centre after a series of discussions with stakeholders had rejected suggestions to include minorities from Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
• The Bill seeks to fast-track the process of citizenship for non-Muslims who fled religious persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan and came to India till December 31, 2014.
• The memorandum by the eight Chakma NGOs was made on the basis of a January 2009 report by the US-based Human Rights Watch titled ‘The Chin People of Burma: Unsafe in Burma, Unprotected in India’.
• The report said that there are an estimated 100,000 Chins in Mizoram, which is 20% of the total Chin population in Myanmar.
• Manipur, too, has an unspecified number of Chins, who are ethnically related to the majority Mizos of Mizoram and the Kuki-Zomi groups in Manipur.
• About 4,000 Chin refugees are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in New Delhi but in June 2018, the UNHCR decided to cancel their ‘refugee status’ with effect from 1 August 2018.
• The ‘cessation process’ would be completed this year on the ground that Myanmar has now become stable and secure” for them to return home and, therefore, they don’t need “international protection.
• The Chakmas in Mizoram have been at the receiving end because of the Bill, which the Mizo NGOs say would open the floodgates for Chakmas from Bangladesh. The Chakmas have a sizeable population in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
• Some NGOs of Mizoram have never raised the issue of the Chin refugees while unnecessarily targeting the indigenous Chakmas who have an autonomous district council in the State under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

(Polity, national)(The hindu, business standard)

Pic courtesy:AIRnews