AGARTALA, Nov 5: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said the citizenship amendment bill (CAB), if enacted, could be detrimental to the northeastern region and the party would strongly oppose it.
Ramesh said the CAB contradicts the very spirit of the constitutional provisions that there should not be any discrimination against any citizen on the ground of religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth.
“If the citizenship amendment bill is passed, there will be adverse impact in the NE states. More so, Northeast India has got destabilized after the BJP came to power,” claimed Ramesh, who is heading an AICC team set up to study the pulse of the NE states on various contentious issues.
The BJP has majority in the Lok Sabha and will try to get the CAB passed in the Rajya Sabha, he said, adding that the Congress is also working with likeminded parties on this.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said on 1 October that the parliament will pass the CAB, which will grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after seven years of stay in the country, even if they do not possess proper documents.
The indigenous people of the northeastern states fear that entry of these people will endanger their identity and livelihood. (PTI)
