ITANAGAR, Jan 15: The Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has questioned the state BJP for “sitting silent” on the issue of the citizenship (amendment) bill (CAB) passed by the Lok Sabha on 8 January.
APCC president Takam Sanjoy accused the BJP in Arunachal of mincing words on “the draconian and communally-oriented bill paving way for lakhs of Bangladeshi Hindus to take undue advantage of the new bill.”
“The CM and his council of ministers are not raising voice for fear of not getting BJP tickets,” he said.
Claiming that the leaders of the BJP are running around for tickets and sitting silent on the issue of the CAB, the former MP said the provisions of the bill would affect the northeastern region in particular and hit Arunachal Pradesh the most.
He said the bill was “a licence to the already escalated Chakma-Hajong refugee issue, which has already changed the demography of Arunachal Pradesh.”
Sanjoy said while Assam is the gateway to the entire hill states of the NE region, Arunachal is not an exception as “immigrant labourers and businessmen – whether Hindu, Muslim or of other faiths – are taking safe sanctuary” in the state.
Saying that the CAB would reduce the length of stay for the immigrants from 11 to six years for them to be eligible for Indian citizenship, Sanjoy expressed concern over the influx of immigrants and said the bill would “eat up the entire indigenous population of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and other NE states.”
“Arunachal, bordering China, is the most strategic and sensitive zone in the Indian subcontinent… the government of India has to ponder and deal with any administrative and political matters with sensitivity, true conscience and clear mind,” Sanjoy said.
“The future of Arunachal Pradesh is very bleak so long as the BJP rules at the Centre and in the state,” he added.
