NEFIP hold public protest in Shillong, to challenge CAB in Court

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 3, 2019

SHILLONG: The North East Forum for Indigenous People (NEFIP) has threatened to petition before the Supreme Court against the BJP-led NDA government’s Citizenship Amendment Bill as it allegedly seeks to wipe out the indigenous tribes of the region.

At the same time, the Forum has also decided to seek the United Nations’ intervention if the Centre is implementing the CAB for providing legal citizenship to immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

This was announced during the region-wide public protest held at the Additional Secretariat’s parking lot in Shillong here on Thursday, amid tight security.

Activists from the 12 pro-ILP groups under the banner of the Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organization took part in the protest as they displayed placards which read – “No CAB in Meghalaya & North East”, “North East is not a dustbin”, “Save NE from illegal migrants”, among others.

The CoMSO is one of the 250 social organizations that are members of the NEFIP.

Talking to media persons, secretary general of NEFIP Robertjune Kharjahrin said the protest is to revive the demand for immediate scrapping of the CAB after understanding that the Centre is determine to pass the same in the upcoming session of Parliament.

“We have decided to challenge the CAB before the Supreme Court before lodging a complaint to the United Nations as implementation of the Bill will be an act of genocide to wipe out the indigenous tribal populations of the region,” Kharjahrin, also chairman of CoMSO said.

He said the CAB is in violation of the Article 14 of the Constitution of India and it also seeks to dilute the secular concept of the country.

Rejecting the Centre’s claim that citizenship would be given to minorities facing religious persecution in these three countries, he however said there is no such religious persecution in Bangladesh and those migrated to India are mostly due to economic crisis and climate change.

Kharjahrin said the European Union in its letter to Pakistan earlier this year has threatened to cut off all subsidies to the latter if it continues to indulge in persecuting religious minorities.

“If the European Union can do it then what is the problem for India to stop all foreign fundings to Bangladesh,” he added.

Also questioning the failure of the Centre to complaint against Bangladesh to the United Nations, the secretary general said this is because the ruling BJP wants to fulfill its hidden agenda through the CAB to make India a hindutva nation.

“Moreover, how can you expect the Centre to complaint to the UN when the BJP’s frontal wing organization, RSS itself is indulging in religious persecution,” he said.

Kharjahrin further rejected the claims of the union home minister Amit Shah that the CAB that the Centre is contemplating will not affect Article 371 or the laws that protect the identities of the people of the North East.

“But we maintain that the CAB will affect the spirit of the Sixth Schedule and Article 371 of the Indian Constitution,”  he said.

He further observed that the move of the Centre to implement the CAB is contradictory to the National Register of Citizens and other laws.

“One one hand, the Centre is seeking to flush out illegal immigrants through NRC exercise while on the other it wants to provide citizenship to these illegal immigrants,”  he said.

Earlier, BJP Meghalaya state has demanded the Centre to exempt Meghalaya and other NE states from the CAB and giving full liberty to the state governments of the region to decide on the matter.

Asked, Kharjahrin however said exemption of the NE states from the CAB will only be a short term relief in view that most of the states do not have effective mechanisms like the Inner Line Permit to check illegal immigration.

According to him, once citizenship is given to them in other states, nobody can stop them from migrating to the region.

Meanwhile, the CoMSO has also submitted a memorandum to the chief minister Conrad K Sangma for his intervention into the matter.

“We urge the CM to take the lead in our fight to revoke the CAB,”Kharjahrin said while appealing to all political parties and NGOs to oppose the CAB.