The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 brought by the NDA government seeks to rehabilitate foreign citizens from different parts of the world based on their religion. The bill, though talks about other religions too, is primarily a mandate to bring Hindus from other nations to India, which has been a prime mandate of the BJP government in their effort to establish a Hindu Rashtra in India. While rehabilitating foreigners based on their religion itself is an act against the constitutional paradigm of India, this bill will also increase conflicts, violence in the nation, apart from enhancing competition among the population of the nation. In a nation laden with ever increasing population and associated burdens like poverty, scarcity of settlements, depleting natural resources – this bill will bring more problems than prospects and thus can’t be welcomed. Further, this bill will increase influx of illegal immigrants in NE states like Assam, which is already burdened with illegal foreigners. Thus, this bill has raised questions among the concerned citizens of states in the NE region along with Assam, leading to many protests and voices. While Meghalaya government has strongly voiced against the bill, silence from ruling Sarbananda Sonowal led government in Asaam has invited many criticisms against the ruling party. People across the Brahmaputra valley of Assam has come forward involuntarily to oppose the bill. Now, only time will tell whether the Modi Government and its subsidiaries in NE states will pay heed to these voices or not.
Informative