Centre for citizen bill in the monsoon

Dilip Kumar Paul

SWAPNANEEL BHATTACHARJEE, TT, Dec 25, 2017, Silchar: The Centre will take up the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in the monsoon session of Parliament, Assam Deputy Speaker Dilip Kumar Paul said on Monday.

Paul's revelation comes in the wake of reports that the Centre was trying to get the bill, which has evoked a strong reaction in the Brahmaputra Valley, passed in the ongoing winter session.

The bill, which was introduced by the Centre in the Lok Sabha in July 2016, aims to grant Indian citizenship to persons belonging to minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India before December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution even if they do not provide the required documents.

The Silchar legislator, who is camping in Delhi with a BJP team, told The Telegraph this afternoon that they had met Union home minister Rajnath Singh and BJP national general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal in the past few days and both had assured them that the migrants, particularly Hindu Bengalis coming from Bangladesh due to religious persecution, would be given shelter and security in India.

Paul said former minister Kabindra Purkayastha had apprised BJP national president Amit Shah of the speculation and premonitions on whether Hindu Bengalis would find a place in this country in response to which Shah said the government was committed to keeping its promise of providing security/shelter to persecuted migrants.

Paul said the bill was being discussed/reviewed by a joint parliamentary committee which would submit a report following which it would be passed in Parliament. The committee's work was halted after its chairman Satyapal Singh was inducted in the Union ministry. The process will resume after a new chairman is appointed, he said.

The BJP leaders camping in Delhi include party spokesperson in Assam Rajdeep Roy, Assam Industrial Development Corporation chairman Mission Ranjan Das, Kaushik Rai and Nitya Bhushan Dey.

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and the Congress have raised objections to the bill and opposed the move to grant citizenship to Hindu migrants from Bangladesh. The AGP, an ally in the BJP-led government in the state, has threatened to pull out if the bill is passed.