Dimapur, JANUARY 18 (MExN): As the northeast stands united against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, two chief ministers from the region met Home Minister Rajnath Singh today to urge the centre to scrap the controversial bill.
Conrad Sangma, who is heading the government in Meghalaya in alliance with the BJP, and Mizoram's new Chief Minister Zoramthanga said there should not be any dilution of the 64-year-old Citizenship Act , ndtv.com reported.
"We have expressed our concerns over the bill. All coalition partners from Meghalaya are against the amendment. We have urged the centre to reconsider its decision and not to go forward with the Bill," the report said quoting Sangma.
All northeastern states are unhappy, and the Meghalaya cabinet has even passed a resolution opposing the bill, he added.
It further said that Zoramthanga told reporters: "It (amendments) should not be there. Let it be as it is. Let it not be amended as it is proposed. That's what we want."
Sangma said that the Home Minister has assured them that he will look into it and that he will also call a meeting with all chief ministers from the northeast, the report added.
Several allies of the BJP have also made their opposition to the "discriminatory" bill known to the ruling party, but it maintained that the "bill is not any state or region specific, it is for the entire country," as per ndtv.com.
In Assam, Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav on Thursday appealed to the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leaders to return to the BJP-led alliance.
"We have contested the polls 2016 as an alliance, so I appeal to them to come back to the alliance. There are concerns over the Bill, but we can allay the fears by talking to them. This is perhaps the reason why Assam Chief Minister is yet to forward their resignation to the Governor," said Ram Madhav, who was in Guwahati on Thursday reported IANS News Agency.
Nagaland, where BJP is a partner of the ruling coalition, has asked the Centre to review the move while Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh has made it clear that the state government will not support the Bill until the Centre includes a clause to protect the indigenous people, it added.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which has triggered massive protests in the northeastern states, was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8. The Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955 to grant Indian citizenship to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
