ITANAGAR, Jul 10: The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) has welcomed the statement of Chief Minister Pema Khandu that ‘the state government is totally against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB)’ and to join the protest jointly with other Northeast states.
The AAPSU, which has been retaliating the Centre’s move to pass the CAB under the banner of the North East Students’ Organisation, said, it would continue its effort to urge the Centre to exempt the tribal states from the purview of the Bill.
Earlier, the AAPSU had expressed great dismay and anguish with regards to the Proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 which aims to grant citizenship to people from minority communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians – from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh after six years of residency in India.
‘The people of Arunachal Pradesh under the banner of the AAPSU have been carrying out rigorous democratic movement against the illegal settlement of Chakma & Hajong refugees in Arunachal Pradesh,’ the AAPSU said and added that the proposed bill is an attempt to dump the burden of post 1971 Bangladesh liberation on the entire North Eastern states.
AAPSU said ‘In context of Arunachal Pradesh, in addition to the few families who were initially settled by the government despite local objections, there are large unaccounted numbers of Chakma and Hajong refugees who belong to Buddhist and Hindu religious groups.’
The union said the proposed bill if passed shall have large scale ramifications for a 100 percent tribal state like Arunachal Pradesh.
‘The proposed bill is one among the latest examples that the lawmakers in our country have no or very little regards for the indigenous populace of Arunachal Pradesh and the entire North East region,’ the AAPSU said.
