DELHI: Tension is rising in the northeastern Indian state of Assam over a proposed bill that will give citizenship to illegal migrants.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill aims to alter the Citizenship Act of 1955 and allow illegal migrants from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian religious communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to gain Indian citizenship.
The ruling party plans to pass the bill in the coming session of parliament.
On Tuesday 46 different political and social organizations observed a day-long protest against the proposed bill.
Among the agitating organizations was Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a farmers’ advocacy group that protested on the streets demanding “complete withdrawal of the Citizenship ( Amendment) Bill to protect the indigenous character of Assam.”
“If the bill is passed then the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) will pave the way for more than 12 million Hindu Bangladeshis to take the citizenship of Assam,” said Akhil Gagoi, the spokesperson for KMSS.
“The bill is an attack on the indigenous character of Assam and an attempt to alter the demography of this border state,” Gagoi told Arab News.
“If the BJP does not listen to the voices of the people the state will descend into chaos and it will face a second Assam agitation, similar to the one witnessed in the 1980s,” Gagoi warned.
Noted Assamese thinker Hiren Gohain sees the bill as a “larger design by the BJP and its patron, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to make India a majoritarian Hindu state.”
He told Arab News that “by polarizing the state into Hindu Bengali and Assamese, the BJP wants to get electoral success in the North East and West Bengal because the party is jittery about its performance in mainstream India.”
“But such divisive politics will have dangerous consequences for Assam, which is already struggling to contain the menace of illegal immigration.”
BJP said that such fear is “misguided” and the protest is the “dubious design of the opposition to present the citizenship bill in a negative way.”
“The bill is not merely limited to Assam, illegal migration is an issue all across the country,” said Sudesh Verma, the BJP spokesperson.
“The bill seeks to ease the process of getting Indian citizenship for minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who come to India illegally because they are persecuted,” Verma told Arab News.
Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a regional ally and ruling partner of the BJP in Assam, has threatened to withdraw from the government if the center goes ahead with the bill.
“Why have so many people come out in protest against the bill? It is because they feel it will destroy Assam,” AGP president Atul Bora told Arab News.
“There should not be any compromise with the secular spirit of the constitution and if the BJP goes ahead with the bill we will cease to be part of the government,” Bora said.
Aman Wadud, a human rights lawyer based in Guwahati, Assam’s largest city, feels that the bill is “not only unconstitutional but also an attack on the Assam Accord of 1985, which ended the violent students’ agitation against illegal immigrants.”
He told Arab News that “the accord was meant to identify illegal migrants regardless of the religious affiliation of the individual, but the bill dilutes the whole landmark accord.
