AGP team at Delhi to convince JPC against Citizenship Bill

November 19: When the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 is preparing itself for submitting its report to be placed in the winter session of the parliament next month, a team of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) led by party president Atul Bora met the JPC on Monday. The main motive behind the visit is to convince the JPC members against filing their report in the ensuing Parliamentary winter session in December. AGP was infact vocal against the bill since its very inception.

The JPC headed by Rajasthan MP Rajendra Agrawal has got 20 Lok Sabha  and 10 Rajya Sabha members in it. Out of them three members are from Assam. They are Sushmita Dev from Congress, Ramen Deka from BJP and Bhubaneshwar Kalita also from Congress. The Bill was originally intended to grant citizenship to the religious minorities (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians) who have migrated from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan till 2014 due to religious persecution.

However, on the face of protest, the Bill has received in the Brahmaputra Valley from AASU, AGP and 70 odd indigenous organizations, the JPC is learnt to have decided to keep Bangladesh out of the purview of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Before submitting the bill, the JPC will be meeting for the final time on 20 November in New Delhi to incorporate the views of the committee members.