by Bhupen Goswami (PNI)

Guwahati : A delegation of North East Students’ Organization (NESO) comprising of AASU, AAPSU, MZP, KSU, GSU, TSF, NSF, AMSU met Rajya Sabha MP and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Javed Ali Khan this afternoon in New Delhi to express their opposition to the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB).The MP has assured to oppose the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2016 to the delegates of North East Students’ Organisation (NESO). During the meeting, the SP leader responded that they understand the problem of indigenous people of the state and will strongly support them by opposing the bill when it is placed in Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile Major political parties and student groups of the Northeast on Sunday intensified their campaign against the citizenship amendment bill (CAB) in the national capital with a series of meetings with leaders of the BJP, the Congress and other parties, urging them not to pass it in the Rajya Sabha.

A delegation of 11 political parties of the Northeast, including the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the National People’s Party, met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and requested him not to press for passing the bill in the Rajya Sabha, AGP leader and former union minister Birendra Prasad Baishya told PTI. The delegation was led by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma. Earlier in the day, former Assam chief minister and founder-president of the AGP, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, along with other party leaders met Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, and Samajwadi Party leaders, urging them to take a stand against the bill. The leaders of the regional parties of the Northeast, who are camping in Delhi, will meet representatives of all political parties, so that the bill is not passed in the upper house, Baishya said. A team of top leaders of the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), comprising major students’ groups of the region, met Biju Janata Dal leader Bhartruhari Mahtab and requested him to ensure that his party votes against the bill if it is brought in the upper house. NESO advisor Samujjal Bhattacharjya told PTI that they met the leadership of the JD-U, which already declared its opposition to the CAB, and would meet leaders of the Congress, the Shiv Sena, the Akali Dal and some others parties in the next two days.

The legislation was passed by the Lok Sabha during the winter session on 8 January, and has been awaiting the Rajya Sabha’s nod. There has been strong opposition in Assam and other northeastern states against the bill. The political parties have been protesting on the grounds that the bill seeks to grant nationality to non-Muslims who have come up to 31 December, 2014, thereby, increasing the deadline from 1971 as per the Assam Accord. Also, according to the Assam Accord, all illegal immigrants who have come after 1971, irrespective of their religion, have to be deported and this bill violates that. Addressing the joint sitting of parliament, President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday said the bill would give justice to persecuted minorities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan through Indian nationality. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also announced that the bill was an “atonement of the wrong that was done during India’s Partition. India will safeguard all who had been victims of the Partition,” he had said.