SHILLONG, 9 Dec: The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) on Friday said it would observe 11 December as a ‘black day’ across the region in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA.
On 11 December, 2019, the Rajya Sabha approved the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, completing the legislative procedure for giving Indian citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
“Eleven December will always be remembered as a ‘black day’ for the entire Northeast,” NESO chairman Samuel Jyrwa said here in Meghalaya.
Members of the NESO, the umbrella organisation of the influential students’ bodies in the Northeastern states, will put up black flags and black banners in important places across the region, he said.
“This demonstration is to give a message to the government of India that we are against this Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019,” he added.
Urging the people of the region to unite against the “draconian law,” Jyrwa said that it was yet another “political injustice” that the indigenous people of the Northeast have to face.
“Despite the relentless opposition of the indigenous peoples, the government of India passed the bill in Parliament,” he said.
The CAA seeks to provide Indian citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis who entered India on or before 31 December, 2014 from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after five years of residence in India. (PTI)