Minorities from Bangladesh have nothing to cheer about: Silchar

Citizenship (Amendment) Bill

Special Correspondent

Silchar: Many eyebrows have been raised about the reported move of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to submit its report to the Union Government by January 7, 2019. Before that, JPC would again sit on January 3 and its chairman Rajendra Prasad Aggarwal would lay the draft report of the committee. The report will be placed for discussion in the Lok Sabha on January 8. Though the development has been hailed in some quarters, but a close scrutiny of the provisions in the Bill will reveal the minorities from Bangladesh who migrated to Assam due to religious and political repression have nothing to cheer about. The minorities here include Bengali Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Buddhists.

Dharmananda Deb, advocate, who has acted as an advisor on the NRC update process from the beginning till its conclusion for people in general and has studied the pros and cons of the Bill, said the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 is an amendment of the Citizenship Act of 1955. The Bill 2016 has amended clause 6 as 6(A) as laid down in the Assam Accord of 1985. Clause 6(A) is to protect the identity and culture of Assamese people as well as other indigenous groups. In fact, Assam Accord is not a law but a political settlement, pointed out advocate Deb. Lawmakers have made special provision for Assam by inserting 6(A) in the Accord and the Bill of 2014.

It is relevant to mention here that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2014 was introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs, Haribhai Partibhai Chaudhary on December 23, 2014. The Bill amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 which means inserting of clause 6(A) in it. The 2014 Bill was introduced to give protection to the minorities migrating from neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Besides, the Notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on September 7, 2015 was also intended to ensure the protection of minorities and give them citizenship by naturalization. The Notification did become effective in Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthan, but not in Assam.

Dharmananda Deb said unless the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 mandates that 6(A) is not applicable in the case of Assam, it will definitely safeguard the interests of the minorities. He added to say such possibility seems remote in view of the stiff opposition of AASU, AGP and other political parties. He further added to say JPC has not given any thought to the submissions by more than 100 organizations and NGOs seeking exclusion of clause 6(A). He also said the Bill if made Act by the Parliament will not also provide any relief to the 3.65 ‘D’ voters whose cases are pending before the Foreigners’ Tribunals as well as those detained in camps of Assam. Even the fate of 15 lakh applicants who did not file their claims for inclusion in the final draft of NRC will be under cloud. If the Bill fails to get passage in the Parliament which in the given political situation and circumstances seems hardly possible. One has to wait and see only after the next Parliamentary elections of 2019 when either NDA or UPA takes control of the reins of power in Delhi.

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