Assam govt to side with public on citizenship bill

Guwahati, May 11: Facing public fury over its silence on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which seeks to give Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from select countries, the BJP-led Assam government today maintained that it will take a stand on the issue in conformity with the general public.
Addressing a press conference here, senior cabinet minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said, “There has been a volatile situation in the state since the last 3-4 days over the Bill. A section of people are trying to provoke the general public over the Bill for their own nefarious gains.”
“The government will never take any decision that it will harm the state. We had formed the government with the people’s blessings and we will continue to work by taking the people into confidence,” he said.
While refusing to indicate whether the state government will support the Bill in keeping with the BJP’s support for it or it will side with the public opinion here against the Bill, the minister said, “The government will give its opinion on the Bill before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) only after the NRC update work is finished. The NRC is a vital constitutional document to safeguard the identity of the people of Assam and the state government will not do anything that could jeopardize its finalization.”
He added that the state government will consult the BJP leaders also before forming its final opinion on the Bill.
Pointing out that incumbent Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had got the IM(DT) Act scrapped by acting as an individual in 2005, Patowary said, “The intentions of such a person as Sonowal, who had time and again displayed his love for the motherland, should not be questioned by any quarter. It is on his instruction that I am addressing this press conference to clarify and pacify the people.”
Hitting out at Opposition Congress, Patowary alleged that the-then Congress government in Assam in 2014 had adopted a Cabinet resolution in favour of granting asylum / citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from Bangladesh, whose ancestors were citizens of undivided India.
“The Congress had supported the citizenship move, when in power. Now, one section of the party opposes the Bill, while another comes out in support,” he said.
He further claimed that the JPC on the Bill, which conducted public hearing in the state from May 7-9 last, came to Assam on the invitation of the chief minister himself to collect public opinion.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, was introduced in the Lok Sabha in July, 2016, to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, to make illegal migrants from six religious communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains and Christians -- from select neighbouring countries eligible for Indian citizenship.
Stiff opposition to the Bill was placed before the JPC during its day-long hearing at Guwahati on May 7, though mostly support to the Bill was presented during the two-day hearing in Silchar in southern part of the state during the next two days.
Led by students’, youth and apolitical organizations, a movement has been building up in Brahmaputra valley of the state against the Bill, with Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the state government’s ruling ally, also standing against the Bill. UNI