New Delhi: Continuing its tirade against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the North East Student Organisation (NESO) has decided to make it a pan-India movement by taking student bodies across India by their side.
Disclosing this to ETV Bharat, John Debbarma, NESO finance secretary said that they are planning to approach student organizations of other States to join them in their movement.
“We will soon have a meeting of NESO where we will decide our future course of action. The Act itself is unconstitutional because giving citizenship on the basis of religion is against the secular character of our country,” said Debbarma who is also the vice president of Tripura Student Federation (TSF). He said that all the student bodies of the Northeastern States are burning CAA copies as a mark of protest against its implementation.
“In Tripura also we have burnt copies of CAA,” said Debbarma. He said that the act will not only bring a demographic change but it will also affect the genuine citizens of the country.
Echoing the same view, NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa said that the central government can’t impose the CAA by force. NESO is a conglomeration of different student bodies in the Northeast. “We will not at all accept CAA. We will continue our protest against the implementation of the Act,” said Jyrwa.
He said that instead of the CAA, the central government should have granted the Inner Line Permit to the Northeastern states to safeguard the indigenous tribes. “The Northeastern states cannot live in isolation. Though sixth scheduled and Inner Line Permit (ILP) areas have been exempted from the purview of the act, several parts of Assam and other northeastern States have not been exempted from the Act,” said Jyrwa.
He said that even the sixth schedule is not a foolproof method to stop illegal immigration into the Northeastern states. “There is already a case pending at the Supreme Court against CAA. We hope to get justice from the Judiciary in this regard,” he said and added “We will soon file another fresh petition challenging the CAA rules and its implementation.”
Meanwhile, the Union Home Ministry is closely monitoring the situation that has developed following the announcement of CAA rules notification. “There are some reports of agitation from a few States in Northeast especially in Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura. There are some places in other States as well from where similar reports are coming. We have asked the State machinery to handle the situation accordingly,” sources in the home ministry said.
Sources said that Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla also briefed the Prime Minister Office (PMO) on Wednesday over the situation in a few States. Meanwhile, the Home Ministry is starting a helpline number to assist applicants of Indian citizenship under CAA - 2019 soon.
The home ministry said that applicants can make free calls from anywhere in India and get information related to CAA-2019. “Helpline will be available from 8 am to 8 pm,” the ministry said.
Ever since the central government notified CAA rules, student organisations and opposition parties started to protest against the act. The CAA expedites Indian citizenship applications of persecuted Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan on or before December 31, 2014.
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