IT News
Imphal, Jan 17,
North-East Forum for International Solidarity (NEFIS) expressed strong condemnation to the BJP Government terming their intention in stirring up the ongoing controversy over the Citizenship Amendment Bill as communal.
“The bill, it should be noted, permits the minorities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to become citizens of India. The communal angle here is starkly evident from the fact that the minorities from only three countries have been given space in the current bill, while the minorities from other neighbouring countries have been consciously kept out of the scope of the bill. The proposed bill is premised on the religious persecution of non-Muslim minorities in neighbouring Muslim majority countries, and deliberately elides the question of providing asylum to persecuted minorities of other countries”, NEFIS said in a statement.
“It should be noted that the minorities in Sri Lanka and Myanmar too have faced persecution in the recent past. Exhibiting its entirely communal stance, the BJP government has refused to grant even asylum to the Rohingyas because it sees them as unwanted illegal immigrants. The Rohingya people of Myanmar, it should be known, have been victims of state-sponsored genocide. To escape the persecution, the community had to migrate to the neighbouring India and Bangladesh, but the BJP Government has sought to drive the Rohingyas back to Myanmar. Clearly, the ‘illegal’ persecuted immigrants of particular communities are of no concern for the communal BJP government”, it added
NEFIS said the organization condemn the Citizenship Amendment Bill which has been conceived with a conscious communal intent. It stands for granting asylum to persecuted immigrant people which is also constitutionally mandated. NEFIS is of the opinion that the in order to forestall the misapprehensions of the various states especially North-East states where the persecuted immigrants from neighbouring countries have sought asylum, the government should bring in a quota system to distribute them in different states across the country.