Barak Valley Congress supports Citizenship Amendment Bill, but not in its present form

November 7: Barak Valley Congress including the 3 districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi today gave their opinion in favour of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill but of course with some changes. The Bill should be passed keeping in mind the sanctity of our Constitution, said former MP and Mohila Congress President Sushmita Dev.

Infact, a five-member Congress delegation began their visit to Northeast to gather opinion on National Register of Citizens (NRC) & Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) from the people, party leaders and concerned stakeholders. The delegation headed by senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh was in Silchar on Thursday. The delegation visited the Detention Camp at Silchar and then interacted with the party leaders of Barak Valley. The Congress leadership from the 3 districts of the valley offered their support to the CAB but not in its present form.

Today visited the Detention Camp at #Silchar Central Jail with the high level team of AICC @Jairam_Ramesh, @JitendraINC, @manickamtagore, @MukulWasnik, @sushmitadevinc & @RanajitSpeaks to meet the detainees who are illegally detained as foreigner. pic.twitter.com/QymyCISL2K

— Ripun Bora (@ripunbora) November 7, 2019

The Congress delegation led by Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh would later submit a report to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Infact, different Congress leaders and different states have expressed divergent views on NRC. So to get a first hand information, the team was deputed to Northeast by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

After the delegation left for Delhi late in the afternoon, the Congress leaders briefed the press. It was there that the former MP Sushmita Dev upholded the views of Barak Valley Congress which they presented before the delegation. She said, “We want citizenship but sans any clauses for those, who have come to India, say from Bangladesh after being persecuted, but fail to show a single document of the country that they have left.”

As regards the National register of Citizens (NRC), she said that genuine Indian citizens who have valid documents with them should not be excluded from it. She, however, voiced opposition to any re-verification of documents of those whose names were already included in the final NRC. As regards Detaention Camps, Ms. Dev opined that legal help should be given to the detainees.

Amidst great uproar both inside and outside the Parliament, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed by the Lok Sabha on 8 January, 2019. The Bill was, however, lapsed as it was not tabled in the Rajya Sabha during Modi government’s tenure of 1.0. Efforts are now on to reintroduce the CAB in the Parliament.

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 after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they do not possess any proper document.