Shillong, Nov 14: The North East Students’ Organization (NESO), comprising of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU), All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), Naga Students’ Federation (NSF), Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), Twipra Students’ Federation (TSF), All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU), Garo Students’ Union (GSU) and All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU) representing eight major students’ movements of the seven states of the North East Region announces new agitational programmes to demand total withdrawal of Citizen (Amendment) Bill 2016, Foreigner (Amendment) Order 2015, Passport (Entry in to India) Notification 2015 and long term visa which are imposed by the government of India on the people of North East to protect the interest of the illegal Bangladeshis.
All the states of the North East Region have faced the problem of unabated illegal immigration from Bangladesh. The illegal immigration started from the days after Independence from what was known as East Pakistan earlier. The continuous flow of foreigners from Bangladesh, has constantly altered the demography of each of the states of the N E Region. All the political parties have deliberately ignored and abated the problem to grow over the decades. All the successive Union governments have chosen to impose heavy burdens of the foreigners on the states.
The successive Union governments have failed to protect the border with Bangladesh. In fact, there is no visible, concrete and sincere effort on the part of the Union government to seal the border to stop illegal immigration from Bangladesh even today. The border remains an open frontier till today. The illegal immigration on the threatening scale was possible due to the failure of the government of India and the security forces on the border.
The North East Students’ Organization remains seriously concerned with problem of illegal immigration. The problem is creating all kinds of social tensions and anxieties in the states. Tripura has already lost its tribal identity. The illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are on the verge of outnumbering the indigenous population of Assam in near future.
NESO welcomes preparation of the updated NRC in Assam on the basis of the Assam Accord. We express our concern that various attempts are being made to sabotage the entire process of preparing the NRC in Assam. NESO demands preparation of NRC for all the states of the North East Region. We hope all the states governments will initiate measures to prepare the NRC in each state. The state governments must fix the modalities after discussion with respective students’ body of the states. The process should start immediately.
In the mean time, we have noticed disturbing machinations of the Union government to encourage further illegal immigration from Bangladesh. The Union government notified the Foreigners’ (Amendment) Order 2015 and the Passport (Entry into India) Notification 2015. The two notifications have been given the shape of a Bill known as the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016. Again, the provision for long term visa has been made.
All the steps have been taken to protect the illegal Hindu Bangladeshis who entered illegally into the North East Region along with the other parts of the country till 31 December 2014. All the measures are communal in character, and therefore unconstitutional. Illegal foreigner is a foreigner he may be Hindu, he may be Muslim.
The Bill, Order, Notification is a threat to the language, culture, identity of the Indigenous people of North East. NESO would like to warn the government of India that at any atmosphere NESO and people of North East will not accept this Bill, Order, Notification. North East is not a dumping ground for illegal Bangladeshis.
The Order, the Rule, the Bill and the Visa provision for the illegal Hindu immigrants till 31 December 2014 will gravely harm future of the ethnic communities in all the states of the region. The measures patently violate the Assam Accord. They threaten to nullify the ongoing process of preparing the NRC of Assam. The attempts to sabotage the process of preparing the NRC for Assam will severely erode our demand NRC for each of the states of North East. We sense a political design of the Union government to kill our demand for NRC for the entire North East region.
NESO vehemently opposes the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016. NESO met the Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh and the Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Kiren Rijiju in Delhi to express our total opposition to the proposed Bill. NESO also placed its strong opposition to the Bill before the Joint Parliamentary Committee in Shillong. We are pleased that the government of Meghalaya led by Sri Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister has taken a Cabinet decision to oppose the Bill. Mizoram government has also taken a decision on the same line. We demand that the other states also reject the Bill through similar Cabinet decisions.
NESO further appeals to all the political parties based in North East region to take the respective stand against the proposed Citizen (Amendment) Bill 2016. We are pleased and do hereby express our gratitude to Janata Dal (United) led by Sri Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar for supporting our cause by taking a resolution in their National Executive. We appeal to all other national political parties to support us in the way shown by Sri Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar.
NESO will hold North East Wide agitational programme apart from the Agitational programe at New Delhi.NESO announces new agitational programmes to demand total withdrawal of the Bill, the Order, the Rule and the provision for long term visa.
The agitational programme of that will be held, A protest will be organized on 20 November 2018 at the gateway of the North East in Guwahati. Protest programme will be organized on 30th November 2018 in all state capitals of the seven states of North Eastern Region by the component organizations of NESO.
A protest rally will be organized in New Delhi at the beginning of the Parliament session. Member organization of NESO will meet the Ministers, MLAs and MPs of respective seven states to appeal and demand to oppose the Bill in every possible way. NESO will meet all the Members of Parliament from the North East Region to appeal and demand to oppose the Bill in every possible way.
