NESO flays Union cabinet's decision on Citizenship Act

The North East Student's Organisation (NESO), here on Wednesday, hit out at the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government over the cabinet decision on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, saying the government had imposed the Bill on the indigenous communities.

"We resent the cabinet decision. They are forcefully imposing the CAB on the indigenous communities of the northeastern states," NESO supremo Samuel Jyrwa told IANS.

He said the central government was aware that the people of the region were opposed to the CAB and they still went ahead to hurt our sentiments.

"We, at the NESO, will be meeting in a day or two to discuss the cabinet decision and will decide our next course of action to prevent the CAB from being passed in Parliament," Jyrwa said.

The NESO is an apex body of the indigenous student groups across the seven northeastern states and has been leading protest against the amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955.

It had also cautioned the central government that "such an undesirable step by Parliament will again agitate the entire Northeast."

The NDA government had introduced the Bill in its previous tenure, but could not push it through due to protests by opposition parties and it lapsed following the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha.

The Bill has been opposed by the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the DMK, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left. Even regional parties, like the Biju Janata dal have expressed reservations.

On Wednesday, Union Cabinet gave its nod to the CAB that seeks to provide Indian nationality to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists fleeing persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The cabinet approval came after Union Home Minister Amit Shah held consultative meetings with Chief Ministers of the Northeastern states, leaders of different political parties and civil society groups and other stakeholders in New Delhi.

The NESO, which attended the meeting, had voiced its opposition to the CAB.IANS