Arunachal East MP Ninong Ering has urged the legislatures of the Northeast to stand united against the Citizenship Bill, 2016 for the survival of the region.
A report published on Thursday by InsideNE quoted Arunachal Pradesh MP Ninong Ering as saying: “We, all Members of Parliament from Northeast have tried to convince the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh not to amend the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 when he raised the Bill in the Parliament but the Speaker …had not given the chance to raise our voice. She denied listening to us.”
Despite massive protests, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 was passed by voice vote in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had moved the Bill in Lok Sabha earlier in the day.
The report also quoted Ering as saying that they tried to inform about the situations of Tripura’s open firing and blockades being observed everywhere, disruption of law and order in the Northeast “which is a cause of the amendment of the Citizenship Bill that violates of the Assam accord and the Naga Accord”.
“Especially in Arunachal, we have Bengal Frontier Regulation initiated in 1873 that prohibits the settlement of people belonging to other countries, only the local tribes possess the land rights so we oppose this Bill,” said Ering.
The Congress leader also stated “we already have 135 crore population, why shall we give place to any more immigrants”.
The BJP-led NDA Government wants to get the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed to grant citizenship to six minority communities including the Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who entered India due to religious persecution.
Stating about the opposition towards the Bill by parties which are also partners of the NDA, Ering said: “We already have the issue of Chakma and Hajongs from the past 30 years. Even the Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad Sangma (who is also national president of NPP, a partner of NDA) is also opposing it. So opposing this bill we walked out of the Parliament.”
“The Clause 5 and Clause 6 have a timeline in it but there was a different agenda taken for the Muslim, Christians and Hindus that is totally against sovereignty and democracy. That is why we walked out and I have personally spoke out that why are they trying to cut us off from India. Already China is looking for us and we have maintained good terms with Myanmar but we don’t want that we want to say Jai Hind. I hope the legislatures of the North East be with us as it is the question of the survival of North East,” the report further quoted Arunachal MP Ering as saying.