NESO, CoMSO to stage stir against CAB today

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: Meghalaya along with the rest of the Northeast are set for another fresh bout of agitation over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

On Monday, the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) a constituent of North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) will stage a sit-in protest at the Additional Secretariat Parking Lot from 10 am to 4 pm. They will later submit a memorandum to Governor Tathagata Roy in this regard.

Similar protests are planned all over the region by the various constituents of the NESO.

In the State, the Confederation of Meghalaya Social Organisations (CoMSO) -- an umbrella of various pressure groups of the State -- are also going to agitate over the Bill.

The CoMSO will be fighting against the CAB all over the Northeast under the umbrella of the North East Forum for Indigenous People (NEFIP).

Earlier on Saturday, the NEFIP had warned that if the CAB is passed it will put the indigenous people of the region in grave danger.

On the “six-year residence” clause incorporated in the bill, CoMSO chairman Robertjune Kharjahrin said, “There are two crore people belonging to minority communities in Bangladesh. If the bill is passed, danger awaits the indigenous people of the region.”

The bill provides Indian citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan after they stay in India for six years — instead of the existing provision of 12 years — even if they do not possess any document.

Kharjahrin also urged Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma to again lead the Northeast in protests against the bill.

“When the earlier BJP government at the Centre brought the bill, we saw our chief minister leading from the front. But now it seems he has lost the aggressiveness,” the CoMSO chairman added.

He said the current form of the bill is no different from the previous one.

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