Former Meghalaya chief minister and senior Congress leader, Dr Mukul Sangma lashed out at the BJP led NDA government for not honouring various protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, of the north-eastern region.
“We are disturbed that despite having demonstrated the resolve to protest the introduction of CAB, the NDA government has gone ahead and passed the Bill in the Lok Sabha. It appears they are determined to pass this Bill into an Act,” Sangma said.
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Sangma, who is the leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said the party would soon start a black badge protest on the passage of the Bill followed with further protests which will be decided on later dates.
“The concern of the people of the Northeast had articulated their concerns in a way that the government of the day can understand and they are able to take cognizance of the concerns and address these but they chose otherwise,” he said.
However, the former chief minister expressed hoped that good sense would prevail on the matter so that the Bill was defeated in the Rajya Sabha.
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“CAB will have tremendous social impacts on the Northeast and no matter what party we are from we are united in our opposition to it,” Sangma said.
Informing that he was a part of the state delegation, consisting of political party leaders , civil society groups, governments during the meeting with union home minister, Amit Shah, Sangma said the delegation were unanimous in their opposition to the contentious Bill.
“We found that the entire exercise, involving all stake holders was only cosmetic,” he said.
There are now attempts to camouflage the entire intention of the Bill in such a way that the people of the Northeast are protected through ILP and sixth Schedule, which are exempted, he added.